The Nervous Generation: American Thought 1917-1930

By Roderick Nash

Book Overview

How roaring were the Roaring Twenties? How lost was the Lost Generation? In this major reinterpretation of one of the most colorful decades in American history, Roderick Nash finds the image of the period to be less than life-size. His book is not only a summary of the high points of American thought from the Great War to the Great Depression but a lively foray into popular culture. His interest in Zane Grey as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Ford as well as John Dewey, offers fresh insights into a decade filled with paradoxes. Seeking to find "what captured the enthusiasm of ordinary people," Mr. Nash has written an original and persuasive analysis of a generation that continues to command our attention.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0929587219
• ISBN13: 9780929587219
• Release Date: February 1990
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A decent college textbook for a week's study

The author, Roderick Nash, does a fine job in refuting the common beliefs about the 1920's. He looks beyond the hype and heroes and looks at the true culture of the era. Chapter 1 is an Introduction. Chapter 2 discusses those who popularized the decade in people's minds, and the professionals who teach about it. Chapter 3 is an overly-long chapter about the Intellectuals of the era, and their takes on war, man, democracy, nation, nature, esthetics, ethics, and existentialism. Chapter 4 talks about the mood of the people and how that affected the era's heroes, books, crusades, and fith. Chapter 5 discusses Henry Ford as being representative of the period. The book is almost a collection of separate essays, as each chapter seems to neglect that the others are there. In total, the book makes for a nice read for one week's worth of college classes, but is not deep enough for more.