Items related to What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century
This treasure of a book gives us a vivid and captivating evocation of the social, cultural, and spiritual tenor of the twentieth century, decade by remarkable decade.
Henry Allen--veteran feature writer and editor at the Washington Post--reminds us of just how it was: "the champagne disenchantment of the tuxedo twenties. Husbands who lost Depression jobs and hid in their houses for shame, the October morning energy of the postwar forties, the dusty heat of fifties television sets, the smell of Vitalis on men's hair, women in gloves that felt sexy touching your skin, men who whistled (with trills) and wore hats tipped to one side, the barefoot LSD weddings when the universe seemed a conspiracy in everyone's favor. . . . "
Each of these ten chapters is a virtual time capsule written with keen intelligence, feeling, and an uncanny sense of the essential experiences of the era: the unexpected, idiosyncratic sights, sounds, occasions, and events that defined not just the time but the way we remember it. This is a book of myriad pleasures--a reminder, as we plunge headlong into the future, of the richness and importance of our past.
Henry Allen--veteran feature writer and editor at the Washington Post--reminds us of just how it was: "the champagne disenchantment of the tuxedo twenties. Husbands who lost Depression jobs and hid in their houses for shame, the October morning energy of the postwar forties, the dusty heat of fifties television sets, the smell of Vitalis on men's hair, women in gloves that felt sexy touching your skin, men who whistled (with trills) and wore hats tipped to one side, the barefoot LSD weddings when the universe seemed a conspiracy in everyone's favor. . . . "
Each of these ten chapters is a virtual time capsule written with keen intelligence, feeling, and an uncanny sense of the essential experiences of the era: the unexpected, idiosyncratic sights, sounds, occasions, and events that defined not just the time but the way we remember it. This is a book of myriad pleasures--a reminder, as we plunge headlong into the future, of the richness and importance of our past.
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Review:
"Henry Allen, one of the best deadline essayists in the business, has done something very delicious here. At a time when books get bigger and bigger, he has managed to compress ten decades of the American century into 159 pages, surely as impressive a feat as decoding the human genome. Bravo, hip hip, and huzzah."
--Christopher Buckley, author of
Thank You for Smoking
"Congratulations on a work of reporting, writing, and thinking that is truly exceptional."
--Jim Lehrer
"Some authors write at you. Allen writes with you. You will hear better, see clearer, touch more feelingly. . . after reading along with him. This is a book to savor."
--Roger Kennedy, author of
Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character
"A zinger of a read. . . . I'll read this brilliant book till the pages wear out to remind myself of the way it was during my century."
--David H. Hackworth, author of
About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior
The 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire once said that each age has "a deportment, a glance, a smile of its own." In What it Felt Like, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Henry Allen captures the spirit of the 20th century decade by decade in a sparkling little book that reads like a Lily Tomlin-meets-Gallagher monologue (minus the watermelon). Ten brief chapters describe the sights, sounds, and smells of the decade, from the "good years" of 1900-1910 to the "whatever" decade of the 1990s. Allen also manages to convey the "feel" of the times, dispelling some myths along the way. For example, he points out that for most people, the Depression of the 1930s was not so much about what one saw (breadlines, Hoovervilles), but what wasn't there: cars on the street, new babies, factory whistles, construction sites. And in the pièce de résistance, Allen describes the 1980s as the "Air Guitar Decade"--in which symbol became substance: "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on T.V...." Though the focus is primarily on the urban northeast, these witty little time capsules, sure to inspire nostalgia, are an excellent guide to America's past. --M. Stein
From the Back Cover:
"Henry Allen, one of the best deadline essayists in the business, has done something very delicious here. At a time when books get bigger and bigger, he has managed to compress ten decades of the American century into 159 pages, surely as impressive a feat as decoding the human genome. Bravo, hip hip, and huzzah."
--Christopher Buckley, author of
Thank You for Smoking
"Congratulations on a work of reporting, writing, and thinking that is truly exceptional."
--Jim Lehrer
"Some authors write at you. Allen writes with you. You will hear better, see clearer, touch more feelingly. . . after reading along with him. This is a book to savor."
--Roger Kennedy, author of
Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character
"A zinger of a read. . . . I'll read this brilliant book till the pages wear out to remind myself of the way it was during my century."
--David H. Hackworth, author of
About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior
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- PublisherPantheon
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0375420630
- ISBN 13 9780375420634
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages176
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