The Plastic Age

By Percy Marks

Book Overview

Step back into the roaring twenties with Percy Marks's "The Plastic Age," a vivid snapshot of American youth culture during the Jazz Age. This novel captures the essence of a generation navigating unprecedented social change, exploring the allure of college life, flappers, and the burgeoning youth culture that defined the era.

More than just a romance, "The Plastic Age" delves into the social life and customs of 20th-century America, offering a glimpse into a world of shifting values and evolving identities. Experience the coming-of-age journey set against a backdrop of jazz-fueled nights and newfound freedoms. This meticulously prepared print edition allows readers to immerse themselves in a timeless story of love, social dynamics, and the challenges of a generation on the cusp of transformation. A fascinating reflection on popular culture and the enduring quest for identity.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1023110539
• ISBN13: 9781023110532
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Anson Street Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The more things change, the more they stay the same

... I first learned of this book as a college student in the 1970's, but was unable to locate a copy of the book until 2003. ... The Plastic Age was a best seller when it was released in 1924. ... (This 1980 edition is painstaking reproduced from a first edition giving the reader the impression of reading a 1920's style of typesetting, formatting and punctuation.) In addition, this 1980 edition contains a brief afterward written by R.V. Cassill, a professor at Brown during the 1980's, discussing the merits and issues raised by the book.There are essentially five reasons for which you might want to read this book, and depending upon which reason, the book may or may not be a worthwhile read.First, as a work of fiction, the book chronicles the life of Hugh Carver, a straight-laced boy who attends fictional Sanford College, from his matriculation as a naïve freshman to his graduation as a worldly senior. On this level, the book is entirely linear, predictable and pedestrian. The lead characters are virtual stereotypes of geeks, jocks, BMOCs, frat boys, cool professors, bad professors, and every other type of flora and fauna encountered in any college work of fiction. Hugh wrestles with the issues of work, stress, the meaning of life, as well as the perils of gambling, alcohol, fraternity life and fast women as the book progresses. Clearly I would not recommend the book to anyone seeking an entertaining novel.Second, The Plastic Age was written an expose of college life in the 1920's. I believe this in fact was the primary reason the book was written, and the reason why it was a best seller in the late 1920's. (The book even became a movie in 1925 featuring the "It girl", Clara Bow.) In the 1920's, going to college was rare, with well less than 10 percent of the population attending college, and extremely prestigious. Yet, Marks, who was a lecturer at Dartmouth College at the time he wrote the novel, realized that much of college life was largely boorish, anti-intellectual and not worthy of such admiration. The masses apparently enjoyed his expose and the healthy doses of sex and alcohol featured in the book, although these "racy" descriptions would be rated G by contemporary standards. If as a reader or a student of history, you were interested in learning about what intrigued the book buying public in the 1920's, The Plastic Age would be well worth your time.On a third level, if you are interested in reading a historical time capsule from the 1920's, once again The Plastic Age admirably fits the bill, complete with colloquialisms long since vanished. If the reader were writing a screenplay or novel concerning college life in the 1920's, The Plastic Age would serve as an excellent reference for manners, language and activities of the time period.The last two levels are the ones I found the most enjoyable. Fourth, the book is stunning confirmation of the phrase, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." College life for