Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s

by Frederick Lewis Allen

Book Overview

"A perfectly grand piece of historical record and synthetic journalism." -- Chicago Daily Tribune

From Frederick Lewis Allen, former editor-in-chief of Harper's magazine, comes a classic history of 1920s America, from the end of World War I to the stock market crash and the beginning of The Great Depression. Originally published in 1931, Only Yesterday has an exuberance and proximity to its subject--the Roaring Twenties...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060956658
• ISBN13: 9780060956653
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday is a very good source for information about living and financial conditions before and during the great depression of the 1930's. It shows a very close coolation between then and our current financial condition in the U.S.

During the 'Roaring 20's' they had it all!

This is a wonderful little book (301 pages) about life in America in the decade between World War I (Armistice Day) and the Panic of October 29, 1929. Frederick Lewis Allen - a career writer-editor for various national publications (Atlantic Monthly, Century, Harper's, etc.) wrote this book in 1931. Thus, he provides a quick, fresh glance back upon this exciting period - the "Roaring 20's" - that he'd personally just experienced. Allen touches briefly, but poignantly, on all the important political, economical and social aspects of American life in these years. He includes capsule biographies of thepresidents: of Woodrow Wilson and his failure to successfully promote his `14 Point-based peace treaty and a League of Nations; of Warren G. Harding - handsome, personable, decent, but unaware, apparently, of the scandals taking place around him; of `silent' Calvin Coolidge and his era of prosperity; and of Herbert Hoover - well-meaning, but unable to find answers to the deteriorating economy and the approaching depression. Allen also describes the people, events and activities that impacted the lives of Americans in those years, including the fear of communism and socialism (`The Red Scare'), women's emancipation, the growing proliferation and influence of radio, the impact of new magazines dealing with the movies, adventure, romance and true confessions, the importance of newly created newspaper empires and chains, beauty contests, changing fashions, cosmetics, advertising, and new automobiles (Ford's Model A). He describes the country's heroes and its new obsessions and fads: Babe Ruth and baseball, Charles Lindbergh and aviation, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan doing verbal battle over religion at the Scopes' Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney and boxing, Bobby Jones and golf, Bill Tilden and tennis, flag-pole sitters, flappers, marathon dancing, scandals and crimes. Allen provides a wonderful chapter on prohibition - one of the really great issues of the era. The oft repeated message that man is destined to repeat past mistakes if he refuses toheed the lessons of history is demonstrated, I think, in this very chapter. Having succeeded in legislating this specific moral behavior (i.e., abstinence)the federal and state governments quickly learned that the people were not going to obey this law voluntarily, and that no one was going to be able to enforce it (sound like somebody's 'drug war'?!). Prohibition introduced - indeed, precipitated - a fascinating, new period in U.S. history: the country was soon awash with bootleggers, bathtub gin, speakeasies, gangwars, lawbreaking, hipflasks, sex, and exuberant hell-raising. Al Capone arrived in Chicago from New York, hired some 700 goons, armed them with shotguns and machine guns and tasked them with monopolizing Chicago's beer and liquor trade. When enormous profits started rolling in, the gangsters then moved into other lucrative business act

Crucial guide of the 1920s...the story starts with Allen!

Only Yesterday offers a glimpse into the nineteen twenties from someone who actually lived it. First published in 1931, Frederick Lewis Allen writes of a decade that had just past. Most historians will tell you that it takes about twenty years after a decade before you can truly come to terms with what the decade was all about. However, this was not the case with Frederick Lewis Allen's work. He was able to show the decade for what it was, a truly amazing accomplishment in 1931! His purpose was to show future generations, what his generation considered important in defining their times. In doing so he helped create a bridge between his generation and future generations who would later conduct research on the 1920s. In fact, while studying this period one soon find out, most historical works on the 1920s site Only Yesterday in their bibliographies. In fact, a through and comprehensive study of this period is not possible unless it includes Frederick Lewis Allen's works. Furthermore, Fredrick Lewis Allen attempted to record the social and cultural history of the times. In 1931 this was a new and different form of history. (Just about as radical as the 1920s.) Frederick Lewis Allen can be regarded as a pioneer social historian. Prior to his work most mainstream histories were based solely on politics and international affairs. More than half of Only Yesterday is on social and cultural events, which is one of the strongest points in his book. With the exceptions of chapters two and six, "Back To Normalcy" and "Harding And The Scandals", Allen's writings are geared towards the common people and how events of the day and the cultural changes affected them. These events and cultural changes are clearly illustrated in chapters five, "The Revolution In Manners And Morals" and chapters eight, "The Ballyhoo Years". Allen was able to show his readers the major social/cultural events of the 1920s. An example is his coverage of the automobile and the "Red Scare" in the early years of the decade. Clearly his coverage of these two events are his strongest points. His writing style deserves some mentioning. He writes in a style that allows for a multitude of readership interest areas: politics, social, cultural, industrial, religion and even sports. This is especially seen in his sometimes-humorous approach in covering certain topics. Another, great example of his writing abilities is his narrowing of a central point at the conclusion of his paragraph. Despite his strengths in his writing and his coverage, something must be said regarding his lack of a bibliography. Without one, it weakens his work. When you find something interesting, you have no way of looking for sources. Furthermore, he was not able to pick up on the population changes taking place in the 1920s. Rural to urban population changes were not addressed, nor was the "great migration" of African American coming to northern cities addressed either. Today

Captivating coverage of the "Roaring Twenties"

The shame is that many modern history textbooks barely cover some material while diving into other periods of history. As an Advanced Placement United States History student during my junior year in high school (last year), I was given the opportunity to read Allen's work on the 1920s. Allen's journalistic style and thorough coverage of the events during the "Roaring Twenties" made this a fascinating read. The book is so well done that I had to occasionally stop and remind myself that this was written right after the decade addressed--it could have been written in the 1990s! The only major difficulty with this book (a minor one it is) is the explanation of how the stock market crashed (there are many numbers and examples cited), but it IS more thorough than most high school textbooks. What's also nice is that it covered the whole spectrum: politics, social atmosphere, the economy, etc. Many books focus only on one or two. This is a great resource for those who wish to understand what may be one of the most interesting decades of the twentieth century. It's a shame that "Still Yesterday" covering the 1930s is out of print-- it'd hate to miss more of Allen's wonderful work.