What do you think?
Rate this book
The Aspirin Age: 1919-1941: The essential events of American Life in the chaotic years between the two World Wars
22 essays describing significant events and people in American history of the post-World War I era including the market crash, prohibition, and Wendell Wilkie
491 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1949
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 23, 2022
I first picked up Asprin Age in high school, when I was falling in love with history, and my favorite teacher recommended it. I remember enjoying some of the articles and not really getting the others. It gave me a taste of social history.
Over the years I've dipped into it and appreciated some of the articles more. This year I was struck by a great quote (see below) and wanted to source it. That led me to one of these chapters and then to savor the whole book.
Asprin Age is a collection of essays about American history from 1918 to 1941. Each one addresses a different topic, and the topics range all over the place: America's role in the Versailles treaty, Prohibition, Huey Long, two bad presidents, a labor strike, radio, Lindberg's isolationism, and a shipwreck, among others. Nearly all are well written, albeit in different styles: cool, enraged, humorous, mordant, forensic, celebratory, intimate, distant. The editor assigns each a year.
The political analyses stood out for me this time, mostly character studies of leaders generally making mistakes. One in praise of Wendell Wilkie (!) impressed me for its sheer adoration of someone I keep forgetting. Others impressed me for other reasons:
"The Noble Experiment of Izzie and Moe" takes a somewhat pro-Prohibition stance, and does so not from puritanism, but comedy.
"The Timely Death of President Harding" reads more sympathetically than I recalled, although it remains an indictment.
"Konklave in Kokomo" is a chilly portrait of that era's KKK. Surprisingly for many readers in the year 2022, its focus is not on race but religion.
"The Radio Priest and His Flock" charts the rise and fall of Father Coughlin. Wallace Stegner (I think better known as a novelist today) sees him racing into fascism.
"The Mysterious Death of Star Faithfull" is a true crime mystery, unsolved to this day.
"The Peculiare Fate of the Morro Castle" dissects a shipwreck, combining engineering with psychology.
"Huey Long: American Dictator" is an early take on the Kingfish. I'd forgotten the author was an anti-Long newspaperman. And this is the first time reading the essay since I lived in Louisiana.
"An Occurrence at Republic Steel" reads today like a dispatch from an alien world, as private sector labor unions are so scarce. But perhaps a glimpse of a future.
"The Man on the Ledge" is mostly a feel-good kind of police procedural... until the end.
Other pieces cover topics I try to avoid in the present day. A bit on boxing was mildly interesting, if weirdly detached and technical. The inevitable celebrity gossip, I shun. An enthusiastically inane piece on quintuplets nicely anticipates some of today's stupid "news" reporting.
Some have dated poorly. For example, "The Night the Martians Came" is fun, but now succeeded by better research. "The Crash - and What It Meant" is an early entry in Great Depression studies; my sense is that a library's worth of studies have appeared since.
That quote I was hunting? It's from a brutal piece on president Calvin Coolidge, and runs like so:
That should give you a sense of the book's style, or at least some of it. There are echoes of the late nineteenth century with long sentences and some elaborate word choice. But there are also styles echoing contemporary film noir, hard bitten and fast.
Do find a copy and dive in. Asprin Age is a treat.
(thanks to Ask MetaFilter for helping me track down that passage)
Over the years I've dipped into it and appreciated some of the articles more. This year I was struck by a great quote (see below) and wanted to source it. That led me to one of these chapters and then to savor the whole book.
Asprin Age is a collection of essays about American history from 1918 to 1941. Each one addresses a different topic, and the topics range all over the place: America's role in the Versailles treaty, Prohibition, Huey Long, two bad presidents, a labor strike, radio, Lindberg's isolationism, and a shipwreck, among others. Nearly all are well written, albeit in different styles: cool, enraged, humorous, mordant, forensic, celebratory, intimate, distant. The editor assigns each a year.
The political analyses stood out for me this time, mostly character studies of leaders generally making mistakes. One in praise of Wendell Wilkie (!) impressed me for its sheer adoration of someone I keep forgetting. Others impressed me for other reasons:
"The Noble Experiment of Izzie and Moe" takes a somewhat pro-Prohibition stance, and does so not from puritanism, but comedy.
"The Timely Death of President Harding" reads more sympathetically than I recalled, although it remains an indictment.
"Konklave in Kokomo" is a chilly portrait of that era's KKK. Surprisingly for many readers in the year 2022, its focus is not on race but religion.
"The Radio Priest and His Flock" charts the rise and fall of Father Coughlin. Wallace Stegner (I think better known as a novelist today) sees him racing into fascism.
"The Mysterious Death of Star Faithfull" is a true crime mystery, unsolved to this day.
"The Peculiare Fate of the Morro Castle" dissects a shipwreck, combining engineering with psychology.
"Huey Long: American Dictator" is an early take on the Kingfish. I'd forgotten the author was an anti-Long newspaperman. And this is the first time reading the essay since I lived in Louisiana.
"An Occurrence at Republic Steel" reads today like a dispatch from an alien world, as private sector labor unions are so scarce. But perhaps a glimpse of a future.
"The Man on the Ledge" is mostly a feel-good kind of police procedural... until the end.
Other pieces cover topics I try to avoid in the present day. A bit on boxing was mildly interesting, if weirdly detached and technical. The inevitable celebrity gossip, I shun. An enthusiastically inane piece on quintuplets nicely anticipates some of today's stupid "news" reporting.
Some have dated poorly. For example, "The Night the Martians Came" is fun, but now succeeded by better research. "The Crash - and What It Meant" is an early entry in Great Depression studies; my sense is that a library's worth of studies have appeared since.
That quote I was hunting? It's from a brutal piece on president Calvin Coolidge, and runs like so:
The Washington Monument pierces five hundred and fifty-five feet into the sky to symbolize the greatness of George Washington's contribution to his country; Calvin Coolidge's monument could be a hole dug straight down into the ground to commemorate all the things he failed to do for his country; a railing should be built around this monument to protect the beholder from vertigo. (131)
That should give you a sense of the book's style, or at least some of it. There are echoes of the late nineteenth century with long sentences and some elaborate word choice. But there are also styles echoing contemporary film noir, hard bitten and fast.
Do find a copy and dive in. Asprin Age is a treat.
(thanks to Ask MetaFilter for helping me track down that passage)
April 10, 2019
"Even a blind pig can find some acorns if he roots under an oak. All of history is spilled milk. If you don't study what caused the spilling, you won't be able to prevent it in the future. --Comments on the Pear Harbor Investigation by Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan."
April 19, 2026
This is a fascinating anthology of essays on events that arose in the USA between the World Wars. The contents:
1919 'The Forgotten Men of Versailles' by Harry Hansen
This sets the intra-war stage as this book chronicles highlights between World War I and II.
1920 'The Noble Experiment of Izzie and Moe' by Herbert Asbury
Prohibition as seen through the lens of two creative, enthusiastic gov't enforcers often bluffing their way into speakeasies with comical techniques.
1921 'Aimee Semple McPherson: "Sunlight in My Soul"' by Carey McWilliams
A fantastically successful charismatic evangelist brought low by skulking about in a dalliance.
1923 'The Timely Death of President Harding' by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Adams was an American writer who was an investigative journalist and muckraker but while he finds muck to rake in the Harding corruption, he finds no homicide. He wrote Incredible era: The life and times of Warren Gamaliel Harding.
1923 'Konklave in Kokomo' by Robert Coughlan
This was one of the most fascinating pieces to me. First, for the sway held by a popular, entrenched KKK always seems incredible to me. Then, to learn it was effectively brought low by a sex crime and thus proved a brittle, far-right movement makes me ask, "Where are the Epstein Files?" This KKK downfall came through the tragedy of Madge Oberholtzer. That brought down D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan. Newsman Harold C. Feightner wrote about her saying,
In essence, the Klan offered "artificial tensions"—a "program of misdirected hate"—that proved intoxicating for towns undergoing rapid change, providing a dramatic, albeit destructive, outlet for social and cultural anxieties
1924 'Calvin Coolidge: A Study in Inertia' Irving Stone
The famous writer plumbs the depth of Cal and finds a problem avoider that dodged political responsibility once The Depression loomed.
1926 'My Fights with Jack Dempsey' Gene Tunney
The boxer gives a humble, reflective recollection of fighting Dempsey that was good reading for someone that doesn't even follow sports of any kind.
1927 'The Last Days of Sacco and Vanzetti' Phil Stong
We are treated to a portrait of a duo railroaded into execution for a crime there is no convincing evidence they committed. But, this was a time of red-hot Red-hating.
1927 'The Lindbergh Legends' John Lardner
Lardner looks at the complex, tragic life and career of Lindbergh and the America First movement flirting with Hitlerism and aiming to keep America out of World War II.
1929 'The Crash-and What It Meant' Thurman Arnold
A review of The Great Depression.
1930 'The Radio Priest and His Flock' Wallace Stegner
Growing up in metro-Detroit and seeing today's political landscape, Fa. Coughlin fascinates me.
From The Irish Times
Overview of the Coughlin career and impact. His initial radio demagoguery started out impactful.
1931 'The Mysterious Death of Starr Faithfull' Morris Markey
This sad, tragic figure reads like an episode of Forensic Files.
1933 'The First Hundred Days of the New Deal' Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
FDR ignored the opinions of Hoover and launched into his own society-reshaping policies.
1934 'Full House: My Life with the Dionnes' Keith Munro
Interesting piece by a newspaper writer turned quintuplets business manager that tracks the medical and PR drama of the children's lives.
1934 'The Peculiar Fate of the Morro Castle' William McFee
Interesting and rather technical review of all evidence relating to this ship sinking under the ineffectual care of drug-running faux crew members.
1935 'Huey Long: American Dictator' Hodding Carter
Living in Mandeville, La. basically in the shadow of the Rankin mansion, etc. I cannot help but be fascinated by the corrupt oligarchy of the Long regime.
1936 'The King and the Girl from Baltimore' Margaret Case Harriman
Abdication of Edward VIII and marriage to Wallis Simpson. Harriman discusses the hints of Nazi-leaning from Edward and dismisses it as substantive enough to lead to being forced out.
1937 'An Occurrence at Republic Steel' Howard Fast
Growing up in the Detroit area, I have often heard of violent anti-union activity around Ford. This piece shows that was not the only area where such things were going on.
1938 'The Man on the Ledge' Joel Sayre
This is a fascinating, detailed review of the author's attempts at subterfuge to lure in a ledge-standing suicide.
1938 'The Night the Martians Came' Charles Jackson
This is an interested recollection of the famous Orson Welles Martian invasion radioplay that led to such hysteria. Jackson sees ion it a nation tense and jumpt from looming world war.
1940 'Wendell Willkie: A Study in Courage' Roscoe Drummond
I found this piece on the failed presidential hopeful the least engaging article here.
1941 'Pearl Harbor Sunday: The End of an Era' Jonathan Daniels
Closing out the era, America is violently brought into World War II.
1919 'The Forgotten Men of Versailles' by Harry Hansen
This sets the intra-war stage as this book chronicles highlights between World War I and II.
The day after the Jewish representatives made their plea for Palestine, a remarkable letter, filled with the spirit of good will, was sent by the Emir Feisal to Felix Frankfurter. In it he spoke of the deep sympathy with which the Arabs, "especially the educated among us,” looked upon the Zionist movement, and said the Arab deputation considered the Zionist proposals both "modern and proper." "We will do our best," he continued, "in so far as we are concerned, to help them through; we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.... The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist; our movement is national and not imperialist; there is room in Syria for us both."
1920 'The Noble Experiment of Izzie and Moe' by Herbert Asbury
Prohibition as seen through the lens of two creative, enthusiastic gov't enforcers often bluffing their way into speakeasies with comical techniques.
1921 'Aimee Semple McPherson: "Sunlight in My Soul"' by Carey McWilliams
A fantastically successful charismatic evangelist brought low by skulking about in a dalliance.
1923 'The Timely Death of President Harding' by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Adams was an American writer who was an investigative journalist and muckraker but while he finds muck to rake in the Harding corruption, he finds no homicide. He wrote Incredible era: The life and times of Warren Gamaliel Harding.
1923 'Konklave in Kokomo' by Robert Coughlan
This was one of the most fascinating pieces to me. First, for the sway held by a popular, entrenched KKK always seems incredible to me. Then, to learn it was effectively brought low by a sex crime and thus proved a brittle, far-right movement makes me ask, "Where are the Epstein Files?" This KKK downfall came through the tragedy of Madge Oberholtzer. That brought down D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan. Newsman Harold C. Feightner wrote about her saying,
Few deaths of comparatively inconspicuous people have had the far-flung effects that hers did”. Her passing marked the beginning of the end of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana; it resulted in the indictment of several political figures and the complete change in the capital cities’ administration, and it nearly wrecked a political party.
In essence, the Klan offered "artificial tensions"—a "program of misdirected hate"—that proved intoxicating for towns undergoing rapid change, providing a dramatic, albeit destructive, outlet for social and cultural anxieties
It may be asked why, then, did the town take so whole-heartedly to the Klan, which made a program of misdirected hate? And the answer to that may be, paradoxically enough, that the Klan supplied artificial tensions. Though artificial, and perhaps never quite really believed in, they were satisfying. They filled a need a need for Kokomo and all the big and little towns that resembled it during the early 1920's.
1924 'Calvin Coolidge: A Study in Inertia' Irving Stone
The famous writer plumbs the depth of Cal and finds a problem avoider that dodged political responsibility once The Depression loomed.
1926 'My Fights with Jack Dempsey' Gene Tunney
The boxer gives a humble, reflective recollection of fighting Dempsey that was good reading for someone that doesn't even follow sports of any kind.
1927 'The Last Days of Sacco and Vanzetti' Phil Stong
We are treated to a portrait of a duo railroaded into execution for a crime there is no convincing evidence they committed. But, this was a time of red-hot Red-hating.
1927 'The Lindbergh Legends' John Lardner
Lardner looks at the complex, tragic life and career of Lindbergh and the America First movement flirting with Hitlerism and aiming to keep America out of World War II.
1929 'The Crash-and What It Meant' Thurman Arnold
A review of The Great Depression.
1930 'The Radio Priest and His Flock' Wallace Stegner
Growing up in metro-Detroit and seeing today's political landscape, Fa. Coughlin fascinates me.
From The Irish Times
It is not likely that Father Coughlin or any of his American imitators can ever again be more than public nuisances, vermin in the national woodwork. But let conditions again become as bad as they did in the deep thirties, and the vermin will reappear.
On the other hand, there will be thousands of Americans, burned by this one experience with fascism under an American and Christian label, who will be warier when the next demagogue arises. The last ironic act of Ben Levin's real-life drama was symbolic, and like the death of his son it had almost too pat a moral. When the contents of his dead son's pockets were sent him by the War Department, he donated the money not to any golden-tongued radio orator or any leader with a panacea, but to a Good Neighbor Association formed to resist the racial hatreds that the leader had brought on.
Overview of the Coughlin career and impact. His initial radio demagoguery started out impactful.
Letters poured in. Some wanted to know, as correspondents wanted to know for the next twelve years, what a priest was doing talking on such subjects. Others cheered and wanted more. Taken together, that flood of mail meant that people would listen to anyone who sounded as if he knew answers. Father Coughlin's trial balloon had proved what people wanted to hear, and had shown him how to spread the walls of the Shrine of the Little Flower and bring into one audience thousands upon thousands of listeners. Most of those listeners were angry at the bankers; many were afraid of Communists. Though he added other scapegoats later, Father Coughlin really built his structure on those two. By a miracle of illogic, he eventually combined them.
By the end of 1930 the priest had organized his unseen listeners into the Radio League of the Little Flower, dedicated to the unraveling of the tangled economic web, and was pulling in letters in quantities that amazed WJR and may have amazed Coughlin. Other demagogues in the American tradition have been hay-wagon orators, shirt-sleeve spell-binders from park bandstands and town-hall platforms. But Father Coughlin was the first to discover how he could do the whole job by remote control, be free of hecklers, be just as sure of taking up the collection, and in addition have documentary proof by letter of what his audiences wanted.
1931 'The Mysterious Death of Starr Faithfull' Morris Markey
This sad, tragic figure reads like an episode of Forensic Files.
1933 'The First Hundred Days of the New Deal' Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
FDR ignored the opinions of Hoover and launched into his own society-reshaping policies.
1934 'Full House: My Life with the Dionnes' Keith Munro
Interesting piece by a newspaper writer turned quintuplets business manager that tracks the medical and PR drama of the children's lives.
1934 'The Peculiar Fate of the Morro Castle' William McFee
Interesting and rather technical review of all evidence relating to this ship sinking under the ineffectual care of drug-running faux crew members.
1935 'Huey Long: American Dictator' Hodding Carter
Living in Mandeville, La. basically in the shadow of the Rankin mansion, etc. I cannot help but be fascinated by the corrupt oligarchy of the Long regime.
1936 'The King and the Girl from Baltimore' Margaret Case Harriman
Abdication of Edward VIII and marriage to Wallis Simpson. Harriman discusses the hints of Nazi-leaning from Edward and dismisses it as substantive enough to lead to being forced out.
1937 'An Occurrence at Republic Steel' Howard Fast
Growing up in the Detroit area, I have often heard of violent anti-union activity around Ford. This piece shows that was not the only area where such things were going on.
1938 'The Man on the Ledge' Joel Sayre
This is a fascinating, detailed review of the author's attempts at subterfuge to lure in a ledge-standing suicide.
1938 'The Night the Martians Came' Charles Jackson
This is an interested recollection of the famous Orson Welles Martian invasion radioplay that led to such hysteria. Jackson sees ion it a nation tense and jumpt from looming world war.
1940 'Wendell Willkie: A Study in Courage' Roscoe Drummond
I found this piece on the failed presidential hopeful the least engaging article here.
1941 'Pearl Harbor Sunday: The End of an Era' Jonathan Daniels
Closing out the era, America is violently brought into World War II.
November 6, 2021
I chose this among other books to read in APUSH in highschool in the 90s. I had fond memories of it, and one year in college for Christmas, I asked for it, and despite it being out of print, my mom managed to track a copy down for me.
It took me until 2021 to get back to it, but I enjoyed it even more, as expected. With a college education and the passage of time behind me, the one criticism I have of it is that I wish there were some essays depicting the stories of underrepresented groups during that time
That kind of thing wasn't even on my radar back then, so naturally I wouldn't expect it to be on the editor's radar when this was published. However, with hindsight I can see how interesting that would be.
It took me until 2021 to get back to it, but I enjoyed it even more, as expected. With a college education and the passage of time behind me, the one criticism I have of it is that I wish there were some essays depicting the stories of underrepresented groups during that time
That kind of thing wasn't even on my radar back then, so naturally I wouldn't expect it to be on the editor's radar when this was published. However, with hindsight I can see how interesting that would be.
January 16, 2015
This book is a primary reason why I don't bother to see "what a book is about" or "read the back" before diving in. Just reading the title, I'd've NEVER wanted to read this. I read it just because. And it was wonderful. I learned the horrible plight of Sacco and Vanzetti. Their story affected me so deeply that I wanted to write a song about them. In order to do so, I decided to do more research. And then I found out that a song had already been written. The Ballad Of Sacco & Vanzetti, by Joan Baez. But yes, so many interesting things awaiting discovery in here. So highly recommended.
February 18, 2016
the dank opinionated essays
December 29, 2018
Readable, if slightly dated in some respects, and highly opinionated collection of articles detailing various major events in American life in the space between the two world wars: Sacco & Vanzetti, Warren G. Harding's presidency, the booting-up of the New Deal, the ugly political career of Huey Long (something which resonated all the more eerily for me given today's politics), a colorful pair of Prohibition enforcers, and lots more. Most folks reading this today might well be encountering this material for the first time -- well, maybe save for the Lindbergh controversies, plural -- and are encouraged to use this as a springboard to read up further elsewhere on those topics.
January 5, 2023
Excellent collection of stories about the years 1919 thru 1941, written by journalists of the day.
March 31, 2023
This book had some great articles, especially the one by Gene Tunney about his fights with Jack Dempsey, but some were also very dry.
November 9, 2016
Superb book if you are an avid history nut.
July 25, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in June 2000.
A collection of essays devoted to US politics in the period 1919-42, each choosing a pivotal person or event, The Aspirin Age succeeds in painting a clear picture of a time which still affects the world today. (One of the most trends which can be seen is the move from an isolationist stance towards the current interventionist, almost imperialist, attitude to foreign affairs - and this has continued to affect millions, from Korea to Iraq.) There is apparently a companion volume, The Age of Anxiety, devoted to British affairs.
The book succeeds because of the quality of the writing and the interest of the subjects, which range from Amy Semple Macpherson to Huey Long, from Versailles to Pearl Harbour (there is just about one essay for each year). Most of the writers are journalists who were involved in the original reporting of the events that they are writing about, and they are often quite partisan, which increases the entertainment value. (The essays on Harding and Coolidge are particularly vitriolic.) Overall, though, the presentation is less one sided and more illuminating than that given by dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy (which I was reading at more or less the same time).
A collection of essays devoted to US politics in the period 1919-42, each choosing a pivotal person or event, The Aspirin Age succeeds in painting a clear picture of a time which still affects the world today. (One of the most trends which can be seen is the move from an isolationist stance towards the current interventionist, almost imperialist, attitude to foreign affairs - and this has continued to affect millions, from Korea to Iraq.) There is apparently a companion volume, The Age of Anxiety, devoted to British affairs.
The book succeeds because of the quality of the writing and the interest of the subjects, which range from Amy Semple Macpherson to Huey Long, from Versailles to Pearl Harbour (there is just about one essay for each year). Most of the writers are journalists who were involved in the original reporting of the events that they are writing about, and they are often quite partisan, which increases the entertainment value. (The essays on Harding and Coolidge are particularly vitriolic.) Overall, though, the presentation is less one sided and more illuminating than that given by dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy (which I was reading at more or less the same time).
December 30, 2025
Probably the best 60p I've ever spent. Picked this up at an opshop on a total whim and found an absolute treasure trove of essays looking back on the high politics and low culture of the interwar US. Some of the chapters are by writers still broadly known today (Wallace Stegner, Irving Stone), but the majority seem to be once household names now well out of print. This is especially fitting because the standout chapters cover headline-grabbing outrages and sensational events that have completely faded from memory. The subjects covered in its chapters are portrait of an era that feels oddly familiar: the popular imagination can't devote itself wholly to the events that matter (the US failure to join the League of Nations, the 1929 crash, rise of fascism in Europe and the rebirth of the Klan in the States), because there's so much more scandal to take in instead: a body mysteriously washed up on Long Island, miraculous quintuplets in Canada, the Lindberg baby kidnapping, and the King of England running off with an American divorcée. Turns out we've always been like this
February 5, 2025
🖍️ I am doing research on Starr Faithfull (1906-31), and a chapter in this book dedicated to her gave me the information I needed. It is an interesting chapter, intelligently written with supposed quoted dialogue from this missing person's case. Title of essay: "The Mysterious Death of Starr Faithfull" by Morris Markey, published in The New Yorker, 1931.
📕 This book was published in 1949.
જ⁀➴🔵 E-book at Internet Archive.
༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻
📕 This book was published in 1949.
જ⁀➴🔵 E-book at Internet Archive.
༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻
October 30, 2011
The Aspirin Age is a collection of essays on newsworthy events that happened between the two World Wars. The author calls the Aspirin Age because there was so much turmoil, everyone was looking for something to ease their pain, but they had to make do with aspirin. It seemed to me an uneven collection, more sensational than scholarly. The chapter on Sacco & Vanzetti was the best one, IMHO.
January 29, 2015
This collection of essays about newsmakers and events of the interwar years is a delight. They are by various writers knowledgeable about each subject. Not a history of the era, but a focus on memorable people and phenomena, full of fascinating stories.
December 11, 2010
I'm with the H.G Wells on this one - we're living in one of the least terrible times in human history. LETS TRY AND KEEP IT THAT WAY!
August 9, 2012
Excellent collection of essays covering the twenties and thirties published at the end of the second world war.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews