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87th out of 769 books
—
1,035 voters
Only Yesterday
Only Yesterday deals with that delightful decade from the Armistice in November 1918 to the panic and depression of 1929-30. Here is the story of Woodrow Wilson's defeat, the Harding scandals, the Coolidge prosperity, the revolution in manners and morals, the bull market and its smash-up. Allen's lively narrative brings back an endless variety of half-forgotten events, fas...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
July 25th 2000
by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
(first published 1931)
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Noticed that one of my goodreads friends had read this, and it triggered me to add it. I read it years ago, but it is easily one of the best compact histories of the 1920s. The only thing I can compare it to is the multi-volume Mark Sullivan series "Our Times" (which dealt with several decades, but Allen is a more engaging writer. It is interesting to see the perspective on the 1920s from 1931. Many things that seem iconic about the decade are ignored or glossed over in this book, but it gives...more
A very thorough review of the very turbulent decade of the 1920s. As James Howard Kunstler said in a recent podcast (probably quoting somebody else), "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." We find a lot of "rhyming' with recent years in the story of the 1920s: starting the decade with a blind faith in the power of capital, and attacking those who question the irrational exuberance of the dedication to material gain; the rise of sports and entertainment as dominant forces in American cul...more
One of the best books that I have ever read -- mostly because of the incredible predictions, and F.L.A. did not even try to predict, of the future. The 1920's -- just like the 2000's, if you substitute "jet" for "train" and "internet" for "radio", and things like that.
I even sought out and found -- my personal, and only "Field of Dreams" adventure -- Frederick Lewis Allen's 90-year-old son. Oliver Ellsworth Allen -- a writer in his own right -- just happens to live in Tribeca, about a 15-minute...more
I even sought out and found -- my personal, and only "Field of Dreams" adventure -- Frederick Lewis Allen's 90-year-old son. Oliver Ellsworth Allen -- a writer in his own right -- just happens to live in Tribeca, about a 15-minute...more
Jun 09, 2012
John E. Branch Jr.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
history,
cultural-history
Read for a history class my senior year in high school (i.e., 1971–72). Reportedly, the teacher was on a one-year trial that year and was not re-hired: sad if true, because (unlike some of her colleagues) she imparted vitality to her subject. Maybe the problem had been her treatment of Lusitania. Still believed by many at the time to have been an innocent passenger ship when it was sunk by a German torpedo in 1915, the ship had in fact been carrying munitions. That lesson made history seem excit...more
I have a bias against older nonfiction books as I don't think they age well. The evidence gets old, the arguments get settled or the style becomes out-dated and the read just isn't the same. Well, Frederick Allen Lewis sure showed me up. He wrote Only Yesterday in 1931 and it read like it was written last year.
Lewis was an editor at the Atlantic and I wonder if his style has influenced later writers there. He is crisp, funny and has a strong point of view throughout. I loved his description of...more
Lewis was an editor at the Atlantic and I wonder if his style has influenced later writers there. He is crisp, funny and has a strong point of view throughout. I loved his description of...more
Before reading this book I wasn't fully aware of how many of the trends that led to the modern world began in this decade: the popularization of the automobile, the radio and mass media communication, the emancipation and liberalization of women, sexual freedom, the existance of a "youth subculture"... It was also very interesting to read about the implications of prohibition and (particularly relevant amidst today's financial turmoil) the stock market boom and subsequent crash. The fact that it...more
A fantastic cultural history of the Jazz Age, published at the beginning of the Great Depression to show how much had changed in America in the span of one decade. Allen has a great ear for the telling fact or anecdote and an unusually keen sense of historical perspective. Virtually all of what he wrote in 1930 about the meaning of the 1920s is still incontrovertible today. And Only Yesterday is an incredibly fun book to read.
(When William Leuchtenburg wrote The Perils of Prosperity, with the be...more
(When William Leuchtenburg wrote The Perils of Prosperity, with the be...more
Originally published in 1931, Only Yesterday is an informal, entertaining history of the 1920s--from the end of the Wilson years to the crash of the stock market. The author captures both the fun and the more sinister sides of the Roaring Twenties. He includes chapters on the changing moral and sexual attitudes of the decade, flappers, speakeasies, jazz, and easy credit with which to buy any number of new inventions and applicances. But he also includes the darker side of the decade--the overt r...more
I confess I didn't finish this. It was just too boring. If the 1920s had been as yawn-inducing as this book, I would have been throwing myself off a window ledge well before the stock market crash in '29.
Fredrick Allen undertook this informal history of the twenties in 1930 to aide him in grieving the loss of his wife and daughter. This shows in how compassionately and understandingly he writes of a confusing and confounding time. His story begins with a look at how Mr and Mrs Smith lived in 1919 and reflects on what they do not know (radio, prize-fighting, Al Capone, normalcy for starters). Each successive chapter focuses on how one aspect of life changed dramatically. After finishing this book...more
Loved this book.
Everytime I picked it up, I actually really really wanted to read it, which is not the case with most of the non fiction books I read.
Plus the author was really great at anticipating the questions that I had and answered them right as I started to wonder.
The last couple of pages on the Stock Market were a bit confusing, but that might have been because I have very little background knowledge of economics.
My only problem with the book was that Mr. Allen broke it up by subject...more
Everytime I picked it up, I actually really really wanted to read it, which is not the case with most of the non fiction books I read.
Plus the author was really great at anticipating the questions that I had and answered them right as I started to wonder.
The last couple of pages on the Stock Market were a bit confusing, but that might have been because I have very little background knowledge of economics.
My only problem with the book was that Mr. Allen broke it up by subject...more
This history of the 1920s was unpleasant reading, and quickly became a chore: partly because I'm already familiar with much of what happened in the 1920s, and consider it banal; partly because author Frederick Allan's attitude toward 1920s Americans and their culture is arrogant and snide throughout. He very obviously casts his lot with the 1920s intellectuals, whom he says openly and ardently hated American society; and when the history introduced H.L. Mencken and described his total contempt f...more
Well, I have to say I prefer my history books lavishly illustrated with charts and bars and graphs. This guy is a good writer, and I do feel I learned a lot about the 20s...did I learn anything that I hadn't already learned in 20th Century with Mr. Day? Not sure. My interest really perked up with the chapter about Al Capone and the Chicago mob. Fascinating stuff.
The 20s were a FASINATING time and in a lot of ways they seem like our own times but strangely inverted--the Red Scare reminded me of...more
The 20s were a FASINATING time and in a lot of ways they seem like our own times but strangely inverted--the Red Scare reminded me of...more
Entertaining history of the 1920's from the end of WWI to just past the Crash of '29. Fills in the details of all those half-remembered things adults used to reminisce about when I was in elementary school in the '60's. The 20's had it's Red Scare, just like the 1950's, and it's Younger Generation was rebellious, licentious, and going to hell, just like the 60's generation. Written in the same style as William Manchester's history of the middle years of the 20th century: The Glory and the Dream....more
As I read this book, three things kept occurring to me:
1. Frederick Lewis Allen was no fan of small government, Calvin Coolidge, the big bull market of the 1920s, or what he termed the "ballyhoo years," which he seemed to sum up as "much ado about nothing."
2. He did not try to hide most of his biases.
3. I didn't care.
This book is so beautifully written and well-researched that even Allen's biases seem balanced. I wish more modern histories were written like this.
1. Frederick Lewis Allen was no fan of small government, Calvin Coolidge, the big bull market of the 1920s, or what he termed the "ballyhoo years," which he seemed to sum up as "much ado about nothing."
2. He did not try to hide most of his biases.
3. I didn't care.
This book is so beautifully written and well-researched that even Allen's biases seem balanced. I wish more modern histories were written like this.
This is one of my all time favorite books. I've re read it probably 5 or 6 times. This book gives you a real understanding of how many changes happened in the 1920's. Not just from a large "history" type feel, but also from the common man side. The first chapter in this book always grabs me. It starts at Armistice Day 1919 and gives the setting for a common family's day. It lets you know what they are doing and what we all take for granted today didn't even exist yet.
The surrealness of reading this book right now is hard to describe, but I'll just say it's a must-read considering the state of the world and the United States today. The really interesting thing about this book is it was published in 1931, so I think it's as honest a history of the 1920s and the stock market crash and ensuing depression as one can find. I look forward to reading more of Allen. Next up will be his history of the 1930s.
I am so glad Lee recommended this book. It was interesting and fun to read and I learned so much. It was easy and fun to read and really got exciting near the end (of the decade). I enjoyed it because it helped me place (and learn more about) a lot of events that I had known about but didn't know exactly when they had happened. Lots of parallel with US life today. Fun!
Frederick Lewis Allen's informal history of the Roaring Twenties. From the Armistice to Black Tuesday, Allen takes you from the headlines to the back page and everywhere in between (sports, fashion, entertainment, technology). Written just as the decade expired, Allen's survey offers a unique perspective and plenty of jumping-off points for any interested historian.
Really fantastic and in-depth look at the Roaring Twenties. I read it as research for my current novel, and I wasn't expecting the journey to be so thoroughly enjoyable! Since Allen wrote this in the '30s, the novel strikes a perfect balance between recording history and telling memory. A great read for anyone with even a passing interest in this time period.
Coming off of Upton Sinclair's Oil!, I was looking for a genuine insight into this fascinating time period that public education decided to skip. Most interesting was the deconstruction of the changing sexual values of the time immediately after WWI, the oscillation of public interest as the burgeoning media industry scrambled to cover whatever was hot at the time.
Overall I found the parallels between then and now to be daunting, and inherently authentic as it was written in the 30's, so there's...more
Overall I found the parallels between then and now to be daunting, and inherently authentic as it was written in the 30's, so there's...more
It was a pretty good overview of the 1920s from a contemporary historian, but it reflected his personal biases (i.e. did black people and rural Americans not exist at the time?) and got a bit boring at times. Overall, I think it was worth the read even in the face of these deficiencies.
Written in the 30s, this short history is a vivid picture of life in the preceding decade. Who knew that there'd been a Red Scare before the 50s, that labor unrest was at an all-time high and Sedition acts could get American citizens deported for crossing the wrong party lines?
Highly entertaining. As the New York Times noted, Allen has a style that is "verve itself." Reading this book is like listening to a delightfully sassy and well-informed stranger at a bar, while sipping Manhattans, and playing Mah-Jonng.
A very enteraining and revealing if breathless and cursory romp through the decade. I found the hints of a Harding assassination and the parallels of the Stock Market Crash to our own recent economic woes the most interesting
The author finished this June 1931 so he lived and breathed this decade giving a first-hand account of American society and business. Young Americans of post-WWI were so spiritually-starved, disillusioned and confused with the European-made popular gospel of Freud they made great sweeping changes in the traditional American makeup. The many influences which brought the ascent and fall of the market to the Great Depression is awfully newly familiar ...
Written in the early 30's, this retrospective of the 20's is an incredibly enjoyable book that has aged well and gives you a real feeling for the era. The chapters on the Red Scare and on prohibition are particularly vivid.
Interesting account of the "roaring twenties" from the speakeasy's to the big crash. The author wrote the book in the early '30's, thus, the evidence of firsthand experience to lend credence to the book.
This is a bit of a slow read, since it was written in 1931... but I recommend slogging all the way through it! Reading about changes in the country, the political scandals, the changes in "Manners and Morals" (one of the chapters), and prohibition... Amazing how many parallels to current times, when all you hear is how we've never been here before... but this book says we have!
I admit to skimming some of the political stuff, I doubt most people will read every word. But it's definitely worth the...more
I admit to skimming some of the political stuff, I doubt most people will read every word. But it's definitely worth the...more
So, I can't really claim this book as 'read' other than the first few chapters. What I read, I did like. It is a very interesting history of the 1920's and the stock market crash. However, it got a little too financially detailed and lost my interest. If I were more devoted to reading for education, I would have pushed myself through it. However, reading is more a pleasure thing for me. But if this is your chosen genre, it is well written and very informative.
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Jul 31, 2008 01:49am