Book description
ONLY YESTERDAY- AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES by
FREDERICK LEWIS ALLEN. Originally published in 1931. Contents include:
INTRODUCTION by Roger Butter field Ix PREFACE xill I. PRELUDE MAY, 1919
i II. BACK TO NORMALCY 15 III. THE BIG RED SCARE 45 IV. AMERICA
CONVALESCENT 76 V. THE REVOLUTION IN MANNERS AND MORALS 88 VI. HARDING
AND THE SCANDALS 123 VII. COOLIDGE PROSPERITY 159 VIII. THE BALLYHOO
YEARS 186 IX. THE REVOLT OF THE HIGHBROWS 226 X. ALCOHOL AND AL CAPONE
245 XI. HOME, SWEET FLORIDA 270 XII. THE BIG BULL MARKET 290 XIII. CRASH
3 XIV. AFTERMATH 1930-31 339 APPENDIX ON SOURCES 358 363. INTRODUCTION:
IT is now twenty-five years since Only Yesterday was first published and
it is time to say what has long been apparent that this is an American
classic. It is by far the best account of all that happened in the
United States during the wonderfully wacky 1920 5. It established a
pattern for books of social history which other writers have imitated
but have not been able to improve. It has been widely read and enjoyed
more than half a million copies have been issued in the United States,
England, Italy, Japan and Russia. The demand continues and no doubt it
will continue, as long as Americans want to read wise and witty books
about their past. Frederick Lewis Allen, who wrote this book, was a
Harvard trained editor and connoisseur of human behavior who mixed the
fascinating little details of history with the deeds of famous men. In
Only Yesterday he wrote of Mah Jong and H. L. Mencken, of Couism and
Calvin Coolidge, of Listerines flights of advertising fancy and
Lindberghs flight to Paris. In his mod est preface to the original
edition Allen suggested that time might make some changes in his
judgments of major events. Yet one of the remarkable things about this
book is the way it stands up in the light of later research. Since it
was published we have had complete and scholarly accounts of the Wall
Street crash of 1929, of the Harding scandals, of prohibition, o the
politics and diplomacy of the period. Yet none of these books has
essentially changed the overall picture that Allen gave us. And all of
them have drawn on his facts and his interpreta tion. Of course Only
Yesterday is very fortunate in its general sub ject. It deals with the
most delightful decade that has occurred In the lifetime of anyone
present. I am prejudiced in this re spect, and so is anyone else who was
lucky enough to grow up in the twenties. If you compare the ten years
that followed World War I with the ten that came after World War II, how
can there be any choice Which menace would you rather have Al Capone or
Joe McCarthy Which oracle from Detroit-Henry Ford or Charles E. Wilson
Which homerun hitter the mighty Babe Ruth, or Mickey Mantle, with his
bubble gum, and cheeks of downy yellow Which kind of national scandal do
you prefer Teapot Dome with its gushers of oil and foun tains of
dollars, or the one and a half mink coats that got passed around in
Harry Trumans Washington The comparisons could go on forever, and they
would all be in favor of the twenties. Take the writers alone Scott Fitz
gerald, and Sinclair Lewis in his prime, and the young Hem ingway, and
Thomas Wolfe...
