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1920
The Roaring Twenties is the only decade in American history with a widely-applied nickname, and our fascination with this era continues. But how did this surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge out of the ashes of The Great War? No one has yet written a book about the decade’s beginning.Acclaimed author Eric Burns investigates the year of 1920, not only a crucial twelve-month period of its own, but one that foretold the future, foreshadow the rest of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st. Burns sets the record straight about this most misunderstood and iconic of periods. Despite being the first full year of armistice, 1920 was not, in fact, a peaceful time—it contained the greatest act of terrorism in American history to date. And while 1920 is thought of as staring a prosperous era, for most people, life had never been more unaffordable. Meanwhile, African Americans were putting their stamp on culture and though people today imagine the frivolous image of the flapper dancing the night away, the truth was that a new power had been bestowed on women, and it had nothing to do with the dance floor . . . From prohibition to immigration, the birth of jazz, the rise of expatriate literature, and the original Ponzi scheme, 1920 was truly a year like no other.
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First published September 9, 2015
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About the author
Eric Burns
37 books68 followersEric Burns is an American media critic and journalist. He began his career as a correspondent for NBC News where he appeared regularly on NBC Nightly News and on the Today show.
Burns has written five critically-acclaimed books and continues to work in television. He has worked as a commentator for Entertainment Tonight, host of Arts & Entertainment Revue on A&E, and is the former host of Fox News Channel's Fox News Watch, as well as a media analyst for the network.
Burns received an Emmy Award for media criticism and was named by the Washington Journalism Review as one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism.
Burns has written five critically-acclaimed books and continues to work in television. He has worked as a commentator for Entertainment Tonight, host of Arts & Entertainment Revue on A&E, and is the former host of Fox News Channel's Fox News Watch, as well as a media analyst for the network.
Burns received an Emmy Award for media criticism and was named by the Washington Journalism Review as one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
March 31, 2017
The reviews of this book swing wildly and I appear to be in the minority......I liked it. I think if you are looking for a very serious history book, this is probably not it but it is full of anecdotal information to add to one's memory banks.
The year 1920 was full of firsts:
*the first year that two amendments to the US Constitution were ratified, Prohibition and women's right to vote
*the first commercial radio station (KDKA in Pittsburgh and still extant) was assigned a band and call numbers
*the first national election returns were broadcast, although to a very small number of people since radios were scarce
*the Harlem Renaissance began and jazz was embraced by white audiences
*the first great financial scam was pulled off by Charles Ponzi and the scheme still carries his name
*the first information on birth control was published by Margaret Sanger and she went to jail for it
I did find one rather obvious error in this book only because I am a fan of Agatha Christie's Poirot books...........the author incorrectly identifies Captain Hastings, the friend of Poirot and narrator of the first book of the series, as a policeman which of course he wasn't. But that didn't ruin my enjoyment of the overview of the year that began the era known as the Roaring Twenties.
The year 1920 was full of firsts:
*the first year that two amendments to the US Constitution were ratified, Prohibition and women's right to vote
*the first commercial radio station (KDKA in Pittsburgh and still extant) was assigned a band and call numbers
*the first national election returns were broadcast, although to a very small number of people since radios were scarce
*the Harlem Renaissance began and jazz was embraced by white audiences
*the first great financial scam was pulled off by Charles Ponzi and the scheme still carries his name
*the first information on birth control was published by Margaret Sanger and she went to jail for it
I did find one rather obvious error in this book only because I am a fan of Agatha Christie's Poirot books...........the author incorrectly identifies Captain Hastings, the friend of Poirot and narrator of the first book of the series, as a policeman which of course he wasn't. But that didn't ruin my enjoyment of the overview of the year that began the era known as the Roaring Twenties.
June 15, 2015
The early chapters read like clickbait (The most powerful person in the United States was a woman? You'll never guess who! I'm going to abruptly change the subject--bombings, what?? I will mention neither of these again for sixty pages!). The treatment of race and gender are weird and read uncomfortably. The descriptive nature of the writing winds up being reductive and essentializing. And... The writing is just bad. You'd be better served reading a book by a historian. Or a college research paper. Or anything.
June 10, 2021
He gives little facts or histories of things like the KKK, women's suffrage, Prohibition, strikes by West Virginia coal miners, people who died in WWI, the Tulsa race massacre, the 1920 Wall Street Bombing, the Teapot Dome scandal, and the Harlem Renaissance. He gives little mini biographies of random people, who may or may not have done anything notable in 1920, such as Margaret Sanger, T. S. Eliot, Charles Ponzi, Woodrow Wilson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong.
You'd be better off reading a more specific history of any one person or event Burns covers. Nothing is covered very fairly or thoroughly, none of the chapters seemed to stay on topic, and it made me wonder if Burns set out with topics for his chapters at all, or if he just randomly started writing about stuff he found interesting at the time.
But I didn't dislike this as much as Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927, which is also not about 1927.
You'd be better off reading a more specific history of any one person or event Burns covers. Nothing is covered very fairly or thoroughly, none of the chapters seemed to stay on topic, and it made me wonder if Burns set out with topics for his chapters at all, or if he just randomly started writing about stuff he found interesting at the time.
But I didn't dislike this as much as Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927, which is also not about 1927.
October 30, 2015
Readable but falling far short of informative.
I suppose the heart of the problem is that Burns keeps telling us that 1920 was a benchmark year, one that set the tone for the year that followed, and then goes about proving that it was just another year in the early 20th century. That lack of specific interest in the year is just compounded by Burns' lack of research, a lack of editorial fact checking, and an approach that is simply scattered factoids.
I won't review every flaw within these covers, but the two largest sections of the book will serve to give you an idea of why this book is rubbish. Burns repeats several times that 1920 was the year that two amendments were added to the constitution, but the 18th amendment was ratified in January of 1919, and it was just Prohibition that began in 1920. The immediate effects of Dry Laws and attempts to enforce them is just not of interest to Burns, who instead rehashes the usual stories of lawlessness that define the 1920s as a decade, and repeats recipes for moonshine more times than I was interested in reading. The important point here is that Burns does not spend many words on the first year of full prohibition. Instead we read the usual bromides about speakeasies and bootleggers.
Burns is closer to being accurate with his attention to the 19th amendment, which was added in August 1920 and immediately became law; allowing women across the nation to vote in the presidential election two months later. Rather than spend time in 1920 though, or even a real look at the presidential campaign that year and how the women's vote may have mattered we spend a chapter reading about the central heroes of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, from birth to death. To be clear why this is a problem, they all died before 1920. Burns only seems to know the name of one suffragette still active in 1920, but after all that talk of Caty-Stanton and Anthony he can barely gather the breath to give her a paragraph.
These two chapters are diagnostic to the entire book. Burns cannot find anything of sufficient interest in this twelve month period to keep his stories focused within those bounds. The subjects that we meet in his book are persons and events who mostly just happened to live through the calendar year of 1920; such as Margaret Sanger, who he actually tells us did nothing of note in 1920 except plan her next step in promoting family planning. Warren Harding had the most consequential year of his life in 1920, but Burns only discusses his calamitous tenure as president. Harding's presidency did not begin until April of 1921.
Other problems consist of Burns constantly promoting his own books and reprinting sections of his previous writing; Burns' comments appearing to be oddly close to the exact wording of that same topic on elsewhere(I started looking after I found that Burns' comments on Louis Armstrong's dirty ditty "Get Your Finger Out of Katie's Ass" is almost an exact quote of several older sources); and a wordy and aimless writing style that almost masks how badly organized, shallow, and unfocused this whole effort is. Burns seems to have heard of all this stuff, and knows that it had something to do with the 1920s in the public mind, and so just wrote as stuff came to his head.
A comprehensive miss and entirely a failure. A waste of any reader's time who actually knows anything about the decade and a misleading guide to anyone who doesn't.
I suppose the heart of the problem is that Burns keeps telling us that 1920 was a benchmark year, one that set the tone for the year that followed, and then goes about proving that it was just another year in the early 20th century. That lack of specific interest in the year is just compounded by Burns' lack of research, a lack of editorial fact checking, and an approach that is simply scattered factoids.
I won't review every flaw within these covers, but the two largest sections of the book will serve to give you an idea of why this book is rubbish. Burns repeats several times that 1920 was the year that two amendments were added to the constitution, but the 18th amendment was ratified in January of 1919, and it was just Prohibition that began in 1920. The immediate effects of Dry Laws and attempts to enforce them is just not of interest to Burns, who instead rehashes the usual stories of lawlessness that define the 1920s as a decade, and repeats recipes for moonshine more times than I was interested in reading. The important point here is that Burns does not spend many words on the first year of full prohibition. Instead we read the usual bromides about speakeasies and bootleggers.
Burns is closer to being accurate with his attention to the 19th amendment, which was added in August 1920 and immediately became law; allowing women across the nation to vote in the presidential election two months later. Rather than spend time in 1920 though, or even a real look at the presidential campaign that year and how the women's vote may have mattered we spend a chapter reading about the central heroes of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, from birth to death. To be clear why this is a problem, they all died before 1920. Burns only seems to know the name of one suffragette still active in 1920, but after all that talk of Caty-Stanton and Anthony he can barely gather the breath to give her a paragraph.
These two chapters are diagnostic to the entire book. Burns cannot find anything of sufficient interest in this twelve month period to keep his stories focused within those bounds. The subjects that we meet in his book are persons and events who mostly just happened to live through the calendar year of 1920; such as Margaret Sanger, who he actually tells us did nothing of note in 1920 except plan her next step in promoting family planning. Warren Harding had the most consequential year of his life in 1920, but Burns only discusses his calamitous tenure as president. Harding's presidency did not begin until April of 1921.
Other problems consist of Burns constantly promoting his own books and reprinting sections of his previous writing; Burns' comments appearing to be oddly close to the exact wording of that same topic on elsewhere(I started looking after I found that Burns' comments on Louis Armstrong's dirty ditty "Get Your Finger Out of Katie's Ass" is almost an exact quote of several older sources); and a wordy and aimless writing style that almost masks how badly organized, shallow, and unfocused this whole effort is. Burns seems to have heard of all this stuff, and knows that it had something to do with the 1920s in the public mind, and so just wrote as stuff came to his head.
A comprehensive miss and entirely a failure. A waste of any reader's time who actually knows anything about the decade and a misleading guide to anyone who doesn't.
April 25, 2016
The year 1920 was a lot more than the beginning of a decade, the "Roaring 20's". It was a dividing point between the end of the Great War and what seemed like a new generation of artists, musicians, political and societal radicals. It was also the year that one physically feeble president - Woodrow Wilson - left office and was replaced by another man - Warren Harding, who was intellectually and morally feeble. But all sorts of people and events came together to make the year 1920 a surprisingly interesting one.
American author Eric Burns examines the year 1920 in his new social history, "1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar". Though mainly looking at the year in the United States, he devotes a bit of time to other countries, too. He starts his book by recounting a shocking event on September 16, 1920 when a horse and cart, filled with explosives, was seen sitting on Wall Street in NYC, in front of the JP Morgan bank. At about noon, the cart exploded, and 38 people (and the horse) were blown to kingdom come. Scores more were injured. Who planted the bomb? Burns takes that terrorist attack - certainly a continuation of several bombings in 1919, if not by the same groups - and unfolds the story of the past few years and moves into the next few. But 1920 was the "fulcrum" year.
Women got the vote in 1920 with the passing of the 19th Amendment, while alcoholic drinking was legally prohibited the same year. The 18th Amendment - or the Volstead Act - may have "legally" stopped the production (and governmental taxation) of liquor, but it sure didn't stop the illegal consumption of the "hooch" and other homemade alcoholic products. Thousands died consuming the stuff in the 13 years of Prohibition. In the end, of course, the lack of legal revenue from taxation and the realisation that prohibiting liquor was in no way going to stop the demand of it.
These events and people are just a few Eric Burns writes about in his lively book. It's a great book for readers who want to put the pieces of the times together.
American author Eric Burns examines the year 1920 in his new social history, "1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar". Though mainly looking at the year in the United States, he devotes a bit of time to other countries, too. He starts his book by recounting a shocking event on September 16, 1920 when a horse and cart, filled with explosives, was seen sitting on Wall Street in NYC, in front of the JP Morgan bank. At about noon, the cart exploded, and 38 people (and the horse) were blown to kingdom come. Scores more were injured. Who planted the bomb? Burns takes that terrorist attack - certainly a continuation of several bombings in 1919, if not by the same groups - and unfolds the story of the past few years and moves into the next few. But 1920 was the "fulcrum" year.
Women got the vote in 1920 with the passing of the 19th Amendment, while alcoholic drinking was legally prohibited the same year. The 18th Amendment - or the Volstead Act - may have "legally" stopped the production (and governmental taxation) of liquor, but it sure didn't stop the illegal consumption of the "hooch" and other homemade alcoholic products. Thousands died consuming the stuff in the 13 years of Prohibition. In the end, of course, the lack of legal revenue from taxation and the realisation that prohibiting liquor was in no way going to stop the demand of it.
These events and people are just a few Eric Burns writes about in his lively book. It's a great book for readers who want to put the pieces of the times together.
July 2, 2015
I liked this book, but the problem is I spent the entire time comparing it to Bill Bryson's brilliant book 1927. And this book was not that. I thought this book needed more focus - the author keeps chopping up every chapter with semi-related tidbits that doesn't really meet the main theme of the chapter. For example, instead of just saying "it could have been the Ku Klux Klan," he then breaks into a one or two page history of the KKK. Ultimately this history has no bearing on the outcome of his chapter, and it feels like something between overkill and showing off how much research he did. And who doesn't know who the KKK is? If you don't, then use its mention as an opportunity to read a separate, more thorough history of the KKK. I have found myself reading one nonfiction book based on the mere passing mention of something I don't know that much about in another; and I have never once regretted that self-edification.
June 14, 2018
This is the perfect book if you want to find out about the beginnings of 1920s staples like prohibition, WWI after effects and flappers (among other things).
June 28, 2018
Very interesting and concise history on the events up-to and during the year 1920, and how those events would later influence the decade.
abandoned-dnf
March 17, 2016I did not finish this book. I made it to page 5 when a seemingly half-page long, comma-infused sentence fragment put me off for good. The unnecessary wordiness of the introduction and first four pages was already grating; this simply put me over the edge. Either Mr. Burns or his publisher needs a better editor.
June 13, 2015
I found the book 1920, The year that made the Decade roar, by Eric Burns, at the library and thought it would make for a good read. After all, finding out what made the 1920’s such an amazing experience for so many would be something interesting to read about. But the problem with the book is that it never explains why 1920 was the year that made the decade roar. It just provided a lot of specific information on the year 1920. What could have been a fascinating book turned out to be just a book.
July 30, 2018
A lot of stuff you probably already know about the 20s thrown together in a haphazard way with very little analysis to create cohesion or broader understanding. Ironic that a book about one of the most bizarre and decadent decades of the 20th century is so darn boring.
January 28, 2021
If this book has a central message, it is that the common portrayal of The Twenties - a carefree celebration bookended by a victorious war and global pandemic on one end and a worldwide recession on the other - is false.
The author recasts the decade as one of domestic unrest (anarchism, bombings, the rise of the FBI), financial fraud (Ponzi scheme), racial and cultural change (jazz, the Harlem renaissance), women's rights (suffrage and the first abortion clinic), a criminal presidency (the Taft administration), and prohibition / the broader temperance movement.
If this feels like a bit of a hodge podge, that's because it is. And later in this review, I will question whether the author needed to strive for as coherent a theme as he provided.
But first, is he right about the year? Should we re-interpret 1920 not as the beginning of a celebration, but as the prelude to social unrest and Depression?
Well, I don't know a lot about most of these issues, but the ones that I am more familiar with lead me to question his conclusions. Let's take the socialist and anarchist movements in the US. The author notes, correctly, that there were several extremists acts likely attributable to these movements. The author fails to mention that America's experience in the early 20th century is unique for its lack of these movements, not for their presence. Keep in mind, this is the decade that saw a budding Hitler and Mussolini begin their rise in Europe. In fact, an entire academic literature is dedicated to the question: Why did America not have more of these movements, like Europe did? The author of this book did not let that question get in the way of his narrative. Why? Cannot be sure. But it devastates his credibility.
The broader question is whether a book like this really needs to have the unified narrative that Burns wants to give it. The book succeeds as a lens into a year in history: a rare opportunity to see what was happening in multiple different facets of American life at the same time and how those interact (or did not). Books like that are seldom written. They require curious generalists to scour a number of different areas and take a shot at giving the reader a feeling of what life was like at a given point in time, if that can even be done. It's a noble endeavor on its own and perhaps one that defies neat summation.
These are good stories and - when you read them all together - perhaps you know a bit more about what things were like in 1920 - and how different they were from now.
Worth a skim. Three stars!
The author recasts the decade as one of domestic unrest (anarchism, bombings, the rise of the FBI), financial fraud (Ponzi scheme), racial and cultural change (jazz, the Harlem renaissance), women's rights (suffrage and the first abortion clinic), a criminal presidency (the Taft administration), and prohibition / the broader temperance movement.
If this feels like a bit of a hodge podge, that's because it is. And later in this review, I will question whether the author needed to strive for as coherent a theme as he provided.
But first, is he right about the year? Should we re-interpret 1920 not as the beginning of a celebration, but as the prelude to social unrest and Depression?
Well, I don't know a lot about most of these issues, but the ones that I am more familiar with lead me to question his conclusions. Let's take the socialist and anarchist movements in the US. The author notes, correctly, that there were several extremists acts likely attributable to these movements. The author fails to mention that America's experience in the early 20th century is unique for its lack of these movements, not for their presence. Keep in mind, this is the decade that saw a budding Hitler and Mussolini begin their rise in Europe. In fact, an entire academic literature is dedicated to the question: Why did America not have more of these movements, like Europe did? The author of this book did not let that question get in the way of his narrative. Why? Cannot be sure. But it devastates his credibility.
The broader question is whether a book like this really needs to have the unified narrative that Burns wants to give it. The book succeeds as a lens into a year in history: a rare opportunity to see what was happening in multiple different facets of American life at the same time and how those interact (or did not). Books like that are seldom written. They require curious generalists to scour a number of different areas and take a shot at giving the reader a feeling of what life was like at a given point in time, if that can even be done. It's a noble endeavor on its own and perhaps one that defies neat summation.
These are good stories and - when you read them all together - perhaps you know a bit more about what things were like in 1920 - and how different they were from now.
Worth a skim. Three stars!
July 17, 2022
An excellent account if a pivotal year. Enjoyed as audiobook.
July 1, 2021
For a summary of the decade this book is perfect. Definitely lacks deeper historical analysis, but was very fun nonetheless.
September 22, 2015
Terrorism, fear of immigrants and the accompanying ugliness of Natavism, racial polarization, changes in sexual mores that did not play well in Peoria...get rich quick/multi level marketing schemes held out as a promise to many citizens in need of money, reckless economic adventurism, artists and authors who pushed the envelope of acceptance, music that was considered obscene by the elders and the uptight; women's ongoing struggle for agency over their bodies and a blatantly corrupt political climate : welcome to our age. And also Welcome to the 1920s.
There is a reason that the Roaring Twenties resonates with so many people even today. Looking back, it feels like society was ticking along at a sedate pace for decades, with a few blips of modernity here and there, but mainly kept a level of conventionality that offered only a modicum of change in a human lifetime. Then suddenly, like an exploding firework, the Twenties arrive on the heels of the worst carnage in modern history (WWI) and everything blew up. I cannot imagine what my grandparents must have felt -- being part of that era. How did my grandmother react to the sudden halving of a skirt length? For that matter, how did my young grandfather feel about seeing so much leg? Was it exciting to finally own a car? To go out dancing freely to jazz music after being primed for more quiet (and chaperoned) tea dances?
On the other hand, were my immigrant grandparents disparaged and harassed? I know they were paid a penury for their toils and spent their entire lives attempting to join the middle class. How much did they really suffer? How much worse would their lives have been and how much more fragile their physical and emotional safety if they had been black? The twenties live on in my imagination as the apex of American design, fashion and joie de vivre. However, I try to never forget about what a violently racist era this decade was.
The parallels which I observe between our times and the 1920s are the reason why I remain fascinated by the Jazz Age and why I have an entire shelf on here (fiction and non fiction) devoted to this period in history. 1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar is a fine addition to this shelf. As a devotee of this era, I was familiar with many of the subjects and events contained within its pages. However, Burns has an amusing and informative writing style and, certainly, I learned even more by reading his treatment of this pivotal year in American history. There is much interesting material included about Margaret Sanger, the 1920 Wall Street bombing, Teapot Dome, the Harlem Renaissance and etc.
Definitely recommended for the Jazz Babies!
There is a reason that the Roaring Twenties resonates with so many people even today. Looking back, it feels like society was ticking along at a sedate pace for decades, with a few blips of modernity here and there, but mainly kept a level of conventionality that offered only a modicum of change in a human lifetime. Then suddenly, like an exploding firework, the Twenties arrive on the heels of the worst carnage in modern history (WWI) and everything blew up. I cannot imagine what my grandparents must have felt -- being part of that era. How did my grandmother react to the sudden halving of a skirt length? For that matter, how did my young grandfather feel about seeing so much leg? Was it exciting to finally own a car? To go out dancing freely to jazz music after being primed for more quiet (and chaperoned) tea dances?
On the other hand, were my immigrant grandparents disparaged and harassed? I know they were paid a penury for their toils and spent their entire lives attempting to join the middle class. How much did they really suffer? How much worse would their lives have been and how much more fragile their physical and emotional safety if they had been black? The twenties live on in my imagination as the apex of American design, fashion and joie de vivre. However, I try to never forget about what a violently racist era this decade was.
The parallels which I observe between our times and the 1920s are the reason why I remain fascinated by the Jazz Age and why I have an entire shelf on here (fiction and non fiction) devoted to this period in history. 1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar is a fine addition to this shelf. As a devotee of this era, I was familiar with many of the subjects and events contained within its pages. However, Burns has an amusing and informative writing style and, certainly, I learned even more by reading his treatment of this pivotal year in American history. There is much interesting material included about Margaret Sanger, the 1920 Wall Street bombing, Teapot Dome, the Harlem Renaissance and etc.
Definitely recommended for the Jazz Babies!
August 5, 2015
Today's post is on 1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar by Eric Burns. It is 400 pages long and is published by Pegasus Books. The cover is golden with wall Street on it. The intended reader is someone interested in history. There is no sex, no language, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the dust jacket- "The Roaring Twenties” is the only decade in American history with a widely applied nickname, and our collective fascination with this era continues. But how did this surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge out of the ashes of The Great War?
No one has yet written a book about the decade’s beginning. Acclaimed author Eric Burns investigates the year of 1920, which was not only a crucial twelve-month period of its own, but one that foretold the future, foreshadowing the rest of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, whether it was Sacco and Vanzetti or the stock market crash that brought this era to a close. Burns sets the record straight about this most misunderstood and iconic of periods. Despite being the first full year of armistice, 1920 was not, in fact, a peaceful time—it contained the greatest act of terrorism in American history to date. And while 1920 is thought of as starting a prosperous era, for most people, life had never been more unaffordable. Meanwhile, African Americans were putting their stamp on culture and though people today imagine the frivolous image of the flapper dancing the night away, the truth was that a new kind of power had been bestowed on women, and it had nothing to do with the dance floor...
From prohibition to immigration, the birth of jazz, the rise of expatriate literature, and the original Ponzi scheme, 1920 was truly a year like no other.
Review- On the one hand this was a very interesting book but on the other there is just so much happening that at times I felt overwhelmed by it all. Burns does good research into his topic and he gives the reader lots of information; not just about people or events but about how these people and events were able to happen. He gives so much about individuals from their births all the way to death that at times I was wondering why he felt that I needed to know everything. That said I enjoy this book. Burns makes a good narrative about the year that started so much of what happened in the twenties and for the rest of the century. With good notes in the back for more research, if you so desire, there is much to learn about the 1920s and Burns gives a good place to start.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
From the dust jacket- "The Roaring Twenties” is the only decade in American history with a widely applied nickname, and our collective fascination with this era continues. But how did this surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge out of the ashes of The Great War?
No one has yet written a book about the decade’s beginning. Acclaimed author Eric Burns investigates the year of 1920, which was not only a crucial twelve-month period of its own, but one that foretold the future, foreshadowing the rest of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, whether it was Sacco and Vanzetti or the stock market crash that brought this era to a close. Burns sets the record straight about this most misunderstood and iconic of periods. Despite being the first full year of armistice, 1920 was not, in fact, a peaceful time—it contained the greatest act of terrorism in American history to date. And while 1920 is thought of as starting a prosperous era, for most people, life had never been more unaffordable. Meanwhile, African Americans were putting their stamp on culture and though people today imagine the frivolous image of the flapper dancing the night away, the truth was that a new kind of power had been bestowed on women, and it had nothing to do with the dance floor...
From prohibition to immigration, the birth of jazz, the rise of expatriate literature, and the original Ponzi scheme, 1920 was truly a year like no other.
Review- On the one hand this was a very interesting book but on the other there is just so much happening that at times I felt overwhelmed by it all. Burns does good research into his topic and he gives the reader lots of information; not just about people or events but about how these people and events were able to happen. He gives so much about individuals from their births all the way to death that at times I was wondering why he felt that I needed to know everything. That said I enjoy this book. Burns makes a good narrative about the year that started so much of what happened in the twenties and for the rest of the century. With good notes in the back for more research, if you so desire, there is much to learn about the 1920s and Burns gives a good place to start.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
March 6, 2023
1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar would be a top notch history book if was to be judged on the strength of its plots and subplots alone. A transformative year in the aftermath of a horrible war is described in admirable detail complete with a colorful cast of characters.
Author Eric Burns attempted to flesh out a year which saw America seemingly leaving behind one era and embarking on a vastly different epoch. He uses the September 16th, 1920 Wall Street bombing-which resulted in hundreds of casualties-to assist in this framing. By showing that the decade began with a (literal) explosion on Wall Street, he notes that it also ended with a (figurative) one in 1929. Burns uses the Wall Street attack to introduce readers to some of the notorious figures of that year, explaining that Italian-Americans Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and Luigi Galleani were considered suspects.
The fear of Bolshevism/leftism on one hand and anarchism (as embodied by the aforementioned trio) on the other segued into an analysis of abuses by men like A. Mitchell Palmer. Palmer has an outsized influence during the portion on the search for the New York City bombing suspects, portrayed as a man whose raids and broader tactics went way too far in curtailing civil rights.
And yet the real motive and perpetrator(s) of this act of terrorism were never found out. Burns describes an investigation botched largely thanks to the efforts of a rapid cleanup of behalf of Wall Street, which was determined to have in-person trading resume the very next morning as a thumbing of the nose at those who sought to sow fear.
Following this, the book pivots to a discussion of two domestic movements which were alive and well in the new decade. The William Wheeler-led Anti-Saloon League's efforts to to ban alcohol paid off in one of 1920's two constitutional amendments (a year which saw two of these go into effect). The description of how Prohibition came to be was overshadowed by tales of its thwarting. From New York's Fiorello La Guardia to the journalist Henry Louis Mencken, Burns gives anecdotes which demonstrate the absurdity which numerous Americans-from the nationally known to the everyday folks-made of the ultimately repealed eighteenth amendment.
From speakeasies to homemade concoctions, Burns paints prohibition as a mess full of contradictions and hypocrisy.
The second movement which saw a successful payoff that year was that of women's suffrage. From the 1848 Seneca Falls convention to Tennessee's ratification ensuring its passage, the push by women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott is cursorily examined by Burns. After giving this background, Burns ties the story into 1920, the year nationwide women's suffrage become a reality.
The book spends a good bit of time on the music scene in general and the role African-Americans played in it specifically. Louis Armstrong's efforts to bring jazz into the mainstream were examined, and Duke Ellington livens up the book's ambience. The shot of life the Harlem Renaissance provided to black poets and musicians was an interesting part of 1920, and Mamie Smith and the Cotton Club both come to embody a lot of the energy in Harlem. Paul Robeson might have had communist sympathies, but his talents in singing and acting gained him respect among a broad swath of Americans who would otherwise have viewed a man like him with skepticism.
The controversial Marcus Garvey and tireless Carter G. Woodson are two other African-Americans looked at, leaders who (like MLK and Malcolm X four decades later) used two different methods to bring the issue of black civil rights to the forefront of national consciousness.
Burns seems particularly interested in the musical, literary, and poetic contributions adorning the American arts in 1920. The Algonquin Round Table comes into focus in the same section as the Jazz age; Dorothy Parker and Franklin Pierce Adams embody the sort of men and women of letters who would meet up at the Algonquin Hotel. Along with Edna Ferber and Frank Case and over a dozen other writers, this New York literary set comes across seeming self-important and extremely smart aleck.
Considering there were over 3,500 strikes that year, 1920 takes some time to look at labor unrest roiling America in the aftermath of World War One and the Treaty of Versailles. A. Mitchell Palmer was prone to look at a lot of the strikers as pawns of the 'red movement' and would embody what mostly was a strike-breaking mentality on the part of public officials. West Virginia's Matewan Massacre was held up as the sort of violent conflict which resulted from the clash between capital and labor in the first year of the 1920s.
Although it is a challenge to shoehorn it all merely into 1920 (some spilled over into the years just prior and just after), Burns looks at several issues related to the American presidency. President Woodrow Wilson's health issues in the final year of his administration led to his wife Edith becoming the gatekeeper to her sickly husband. With Woodrow incapacitated, she became an almost acting president of sorts during 1920.
Furthermore, the election that year which brought Warren G. Harding to power would become the first one broadcast over the radio. Harding unfortunately ended up leading a scandal-plagued administration that featured the appalling bilking of Veteran's Bureau funds in the aftermath of a world war. Harding passed away before his four years were out under circumstances which resulted in unsavory rumors being floated. The corruption of his Ohio set, which took place after his inauguration in 1921, was nevertheless included in Burns's study.
If corruption is what readers area after, they are sure to find the detailing of Charles Ponzi's financial scheme compelling reading. Burns tells how this man went to incredible lengths to deceive those around him and to get them to depart from their savings.
If all of these storylines sound like they would be make for a borderline five star book...they almost do. But much of this good is undone by the awful editing job, one which produces numerous cringeworthy paragraphs which almost make readers want to take a out a pen and write in corrections. It could have used at least one more rewrite; the pages are replete with clunky sentences and one confusingly phrased observation after another. These egregious errors really took away from what was otherwise an enjoyable book on the year that kicked off the Roaring Twenties.
There is a lot which can be taken away from the characters and anecdotes in 1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar. From its cultural to its political contributors, from its acts of violence to its acts of creation, Eric Burns really fleshes out the year 1920 well. If only the same level of effort that went into its research had also gone into cleaning up its syntax, this book would have been an eminently recommendable one on this era.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
Author Eric Burns attempted to flesh out a year which saw America seemingly leaving behind one era and embarking on a vastly different epoch. He uses the September 16th, 1920 Wall Street bombing-which resulted in hundreds of casualties-to assist in this framing. By showing that the decade began with a (literal) explosion on Wall Street, he notes that it also ended with a (figurative) one in 1929. Burns uses the Wall Street attack to introduce readers to some of the notorious figures of that year, explaining that Italian-Americans Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and Luigi Galleani were considered suspects.
The fear of Bolshevism/leftism on one hand and anarchism (as embodied by the aforementioned trio) on the other segued into an analysis of abuses by men like A. Mitchell Palmer. Palmer has an outsized influence during the portion on the search for the New York City bombing suspects, portrayed as a man whose raids and broader tactics went way too far in curtailing civil rights.
And yet the real motive and perpetrator(s) of this act of terrorism were never found out. Burns describes an investigation botched largely thanks to the efforts of a rapid cleanup of behalf of Wall Street, which was determined to have in-person trading resume the very next morning as a thumbing of the nose at those who sought to sow fear.
Following this, the book pivots to a discussion of two domestic movements which were alive and well in the new decade. The William Wheeler-led Anti-Saloon League's efforts to to ban alcohol paid off in one of 1920's two constitutional amendments (a year which saw two of these go into effect). The description of how Prohibition came to be was overshadowed by tales of its thwarting. From New York's Fiorello La Guardia to the journalist Henry Louis Mencken, Burns gives anecdotes which demonstrate the absurdity which numerous Americans-from the nationally known to the everyday folks-made of the ultimately repealed eighteenth amendment.
From speakeasies to homemade concoctions, Burns paints prohibition as a mess full of contradictions and hypocrisy.
The second movement which saw a successful payoff that year was that of women's suffrage. From the 1848 Seneca Falls convention to Tennessee's ratification ensuring its passage, the push by women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott is cursorily examined by Burns. After giving this background, Burns ties the story into 1920, the year nationwide women's suffrage become a reality.
The book spends a good bit of time on the music scene in general and the role African-Americans played in it specifically. Louis Armstrong's efforts to bring jazz into the mainstream were examined, and Duke Ellington livens up the book's ambience. The shot of life the Harlem Renaissance provided to black poets and musicians was an interesting part of 1920, and Mamie Smith and the Cotton Club both come to embody a lot of the energy in Harlem. Paul Robeson might have had communist sympathies, but his talents in singing and acting gained him respect among a broad swath of Americans who would otherwise have viewed a man like him with skepticism.
The controversial Marcus Garvey and tireless Carter G. Woodson are two other African-Americans looked at, leaders who (like MLK and Malcolm X four decades later) used two different methods to bring the issue of black civil rights to the forefront of national consciousness.
Burns seems particularly interested in the musical, literary, and poetic contributions adorning the American arts in 1920. The Algonquin Round Table comes into focus in the same section as the Jazz age; Dorothy Parker and Franklin Pierce Adams embody the sort of men and women of letters who would meet up at the Algonquin Hotel. Along with Edna Ferber and Frank Case and over a dozen other writers, this New York literary set comes across seeming self-important and extremely smart aleck.
Considering there were over 3,500 strikes that year, 1920 takes some time to look at labor unrest roiling America in the aftermath of World War One and the Treaty of Versailles. A. Mitchell Palmer was prone to look at a lot of the strikers as pawns of the 'red movement' and would embody what mostly was a strike-breaking mentality on the part of public officials. West Virginia's Matewan Massacre was held up as the sort of violent conflict which resulted from the clash between capital and labor in the first year of the 1920s.
Although it is a challenge to shoehorn it all merely into 1920 (some spilled over into the years just prior and just after), Burns looks at several issues related to the American presidency. President Woodrow Wilson's health issues in the final year of his administration led to his wife Edith becoming the gatekeeper to her sickly husband. With Woodrow incapacitated, she became an almost acting president of sorts during 1920.
Furthermore, the election that year which brought Warren G. Harding to power would become the first one broadcast over the radio. Harding unfortunately ended up leading a scandal-plagued administration that featured the appalling bilking of Veteran's Bureau funds in the aftermath of a world war. Harding passed away before his four years were out under circumstances which resulted in unsavory rumors being floated. The corruption of his Ohio set, which took place after his inauguration in 1921, was nevertheless included in Burns's study.
If corruption is what readers area after, they are sure to find the detailing of Charles Ponzi's financial scheme compelling reading. Burns tells how this man went to incredible lengths to deceive those around him and to get them to depart from their savings.
If all of these storylines sound like they would be make for a borderline five star book...they almost do. But much of this good is undone by the awful editing job, one which produces numerous cringeworthy paragraphs which almost make readers want to take a out a pen and write in corrections. It could have used at least one more rewrite; the pages are replete with clunky sentences and one confusingly phrased observation after another. These egregious errors really took away from what was otherwise an enjoyable book on the year that kicked off the Roaring Twenties.
There is a lot which can be taken away from the characters and anecdotes in 1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar. From its cultural to its political contributors, from its acts of violence to its acts of creation, Eric Burns really fleshes out the year 1920 well. If only the same level of effort that went into its research had also gone into cleaning up its syntax, this book would have been an eminently recommendable one on this era.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
October 5, 2015
Eric Burns opens his book with an account of a historic bombing on Wall Street, and covers a wide array of events, developments, and personalities who moved the U. S., and in some cases the world. He makes an effective argument for the pivotal nature of 1920, from Prohibition to Planned Parenthood, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Harding administration, Charles Ponzi to the Lost Generation. It's a pretty amazing time, and Burns does it justice with this entertaining and enlightening work of history.
September 7, 2015
I enjoyed this overall though it had some issues. I didn't really care for Burns' writing style, and he seemed to jump to conclusions I didn't get or quote things that I didn't really understand why... The book also lacked some focus; it was hardly about only 1920 (the great 1922 could've taught Burns something about a book on one year). There were so many asides too. But overall I enjoyed the information.
April 15, 2022
The 1920s were a crazy time. They are the only decade in the 20th Century that has an adjective to describe it. Burns ticks off a list of significant parts of the social and economic structure of the 1920s. He starts near the end of the year by describing a terrorist bombing on Wall Street in front of the J.P. Morgan bank building. But then he goes through a list of things he considers significant in shaping the rest of the decade - new forms of music and dancing, the move towards civil rights, the robber barons and those who worked for them, prohibition, women’s rights and family planning, Woodrow Wilson’s wife running the country, and, finally, the flappers.
It was a time of excitement and excess, a time of distractions in an era in which Americans needed distraction. He talks about Babe Ruth, flag pole sitters, the book of the month club and other things that seem trivial, but were ways of putting behind them the horrors of the Great War. Agatha Christie published her first novel in 1920, the “Mysterious Affair at Styles, and Hercule Poirot began his amazing detective career. The Round Table Club met at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. They got together just to chat and drink and let the world go by. But you had to have the right social standing to be part of the Round Table Club and it quickly disintegrated as its members moved on to other more serious things in life. He described the return of one old member after an absence of several months who found a family from Kansas sitting at the table. For him, it was the Club’s true coup de grâce. Dorothy Parker was among those in the Club to whom the question was put, “Can you use the word horticulture in a sentence?” Her reply: “You can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think!”
The descriptions of the mining and steel industries were horrifying. I knew from reading Upton Sinclair‘s work that factory conditions in that era were truly appalling. But to hear Burns speak of it again in the context of the robber barons extracting every last ounce of energy and money out of these workers was a ghastly experience. He didn’t mention that body parts ended up in the furnaces, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. They certainly did find their way into the products of the meat packers.
One thing I wish he’d addressed was the growth and influence of the automobile industry. He mentioned Ford’s production innovations a few times, but only in the context of their relationship to other industries. He didn’t talk about the move from horse-driven transportation to automobiles. I think that sudden change in our ability to more easily move goods and people over distances shaped American thinking as powerfully as some of the other elements he featured.
I particularly liked Burns’ assessment of the flappers. “The iconic image of 1920, however, was a white woman, a vapid young thing with daringly short hair, daringly short skirts, and daringly bold and unladylike habits. She whirled herself around the dance floor, frantic and loose limbed, and uninhibited in her contortions, exerting herself with a hint of sexual frenzy…and doing so long into the night. In real life she was a presence. As a symbol, she was a delusion. There could be no greater misrepresentation of the year, no greater irony when we think of the troubled, cold-hearted revolutionary period that had now begun, than what so many of us see in the mind’s eye when the era is recalled to us.”
In other words, Burns says, the flappers didn’t represent the underlying meaning or message of the decade. “As it turned out, the roaring 20s was not the decade that anyone had in mind when he looked ahead after the great war, nor the period that future generations imagine when they look back through the distorted lens of popular culture. The flappers are a kind of footnote in this book because that is precisely what they were in their time, a time more desperate than carefree, more unjust than equitable, more punishing than leisurely, more revolutionary than placid, more worrisome than confident, more threatening than assured.” The frenetic Charlestons of the flappers were but another way to distract and forget. And he’s right; when I think of the 20’s, I think not only of the flappers, but of the Bright Young Things and their parties and the bubble of prosperity that surged towards October 29, 1929. I guess all too often I forget that final crash.
At the end of the book, Burns circles back to the Wall Street bombing. The bombing was the first terrorist attack ever to occur in the United States; 38 people were killed and another 400+ injured. Among the latter were a few who would be dead within the month. It would be the most destructive until the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 when 168 people lost their lives and more than 600 others were injured. While guilt never has been proven conclusively, the consensus now is that it was an anarchist inspired by Luigi Galleani, Mario Buda. After the bombing, he fled to Italy, where Galleani already resided, and lived another 40 years.
Burns has a witty and accessible writing style that made the book easy to read. There were many things that I didn’t know. I recommend it.
It was a time of excitement and excess, a time of distractions in an era in which Americans needed distraction. He talks about Babe Ruth, flag pole sitters, the book of the month club and other things that seem trivial, but were ways of putting behind them the horrors of the Great War. Agatha Christie published her first novel in 1920, the “Mysterious Affair at Styles, and Hercule Poirot began his amazing detective career. The Round Table Club met at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. They got together just to chat and drink and let the world go by. But you had to have the right social standing to be part of the Round Table Club and it quickly disintegrated as its members moved on to other more serious things in life. He described the return of one old member after an absence of several months who found a family from Kansas sitting at the table. For him, it was the Club’s true coup de grâce. Dorothy Parker was among those in the Club to whom the question was put, “Can you use the word horticulture in a sentence?” Her reply: “You can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think!”
The descriptions of the mining and steel industries were horrifying. I knew from reading Upton Sinclair‘s work that factory conditions in that era were truly appalling. But to hear Burns speak of it again in the context of the robber barons extracting every last ounce of energy and money out of these workers was a ghastly experience. He didn’t mention that body parts ended up in the furnaces, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. They certainly did find their way into the products of the meat packers.
One thing I wish he’d addressed was the growth and influence of the automobile industry. He mentioned Ford’s production innovations a few times, but only in the context of their relationship to other industries. He didn’t talk about the move from horse-driven transportation to automobiles. I think that sudden change in our ability to more easily move goods and people over distances shaped American thinking as powerfully as some of the other elements he featured.
I particularly liked Burns’ assessment of the flappers. “The iconic image of 1920, however, was a white woman, a vapid young thing with daringly short hair, daringly short skirts, and daringly bold and unladylike habits. She whirled herself around the dance floor, frantic and loose limbed, and uninhibited in her contortions, exerting herself with a hint of sexual frenzy…and doing so long into the night. In real life she was a presence. As a symbol, she was a delusion. There could be no greater misrepresentation of the year, no greater irony when we think of the troubled, cold-hearted revolutionary period that had now begun, than what so many of us see in the mind’s eye when the era is recalled to us.”
In other words, Burns says, the flappers didn’t represent the underlying meaning or message of the decade. “As it turned out, the roaring 20s was not the decade that anyone had in mind when he looked ahead after the great war, nor the period that future generations imagine when they look back through the distorted lens of popular culture. The flappers are a kind of footnote in this book because that is precisely what they were in their time, a time more desperate than carefree, more unjust than equitable, more punishing than leisurely, more revolutionary than placid, more worrisome than confident, more threatening than assured.” The frenetic Charlestons of the flappers were but another way to distract and forget. And he’s right; when I think of the 20’s, I think not only of the flappers, but of the Bright Young Things and their parties and the bubble of prosperity that surged towards October 29, 1929. I guess all too often I forget that final crash.
At the end of the book, Burns circles back to the Wall Street bombing. The bombing was the first terrorist attack ever to occur in the United States; 38 people were killed and another 400+ injured. Among the latter were a few who would be dead within the month. It would be the most destructive until the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 when 168 people lost their lives and more than 600 others were injured. While guilt never has been proven conclusively, the consensus now is that it was an anarchist inspired by Luigi Galleani, Mario Buda. After the bombing, he fled to Italy, where Galleani already resided, and lived another 40 years.
Burns has a witty and accessible writing style that made the book easy to read. There were many things that I didn’t know. I recommend it.
July 26, 2018
Starting with the mysterious and famous Wall Street bombing that took place in January of 1920, Eric Burns takes us through the many ups and downs of the year he pens "that made the decade roar". We all think of the roaring twenties as an easy-go-lucky times of frolicking flappers dancing the nights away and of the endless flow of booze behind secret speakeasy doors! Not so. Although there was a little of that going on, it was not as much as we have been lead to believe and times then were hard and at times dangerous. There was no money, there was no easy way to acquire pure alcohol, much went into obtaining any amount of booze, whether from Canada or from unethical ingredients.
Covering events such as the Volstead Act, better known as the 18th Amendment, or what we call the Prohibition era, Eric Burns writes a wonderful account of the trials and tribulations of the American People that year. Details on the rum running and rotgut whiskey creations, the occurrences that would lead up to the Depression, and the exciting battle to be won for the Women's Right to Vote are revealed in a very readable manner that reads like fiction. The author's style for this history book is not dry and factual as some can be and I found it engrossing to learn the details of this troublesome time in our country's history.
It was fun to learn about one of our bright lights, the birth of Jazz, and how Louis Armstrong, New Orlean's Boy Wonder started it all at a very young age. On the dark side, learning about the rise and growth of the Klu Klux Klan was deeply disturbing. Burn's retelling of the West Virginia coal miner's strike that caused fear in the hearts of Americans who worried about getting through the winter cold weather without heat, and how Teddy Roosevelt then President had to step in and negotiate us out of the mess, was also an eye-opening situation that can make us understand how very hard life in in the past was, and how incredibly lucky we are today.
There are two chapters that I found the highlights of the book. The first being the life and work of Margaret Sanger who fought for women to obtain birth control and her life work that ended up starting the Planned Parenthood Program. The second was the incredible life of con-man and financial wizard, Carlo Ponzi. He created the "Get-Rich-Quick Scheme" and was often sliding just a bit over the line of law and found himself in and out of jail, and exiled from country to country for his evil ways.
1920 was the year that Americans could first hear a radio broadcast so they could listen to election details, music and sports. It was also the year of the disastrous Harding administration, an incompetent President who hung out with his circle of criminal friends that were called the Ohio Gang. Ending this year of roller coaster events, Eric Burns finishes off with an interesting report on how new authors and styles of fictional novels turned the tide for literary history, as well as describes the wonderful world of the Harlem Renaissance and the great effects it had on the African Americans of the time.
I feel bad that there are a lot of negative or average reviews for this tremendously researched and marvelous retelling of an important year of our past. I absolutely loved the book and Highly recommend it to anyone who loves history. Five Star read for sure!
Covering events such as the Volstead Act, better known as the 18th Amendment, or what we call the Prohibition era, Eric Burns writes a wonderful account of the trials and tribulations of the American People that year. Details on the rum running and rotgut whiskey creations, the occurrences that would lead up to the Depression, and the exciting battle to be won for the Women's Right to Vote are revealed in a very readable manner that reads like fiction. The author's style for this history book is not dry and factual as some can be and I found it engrossing to learn the details of this troublesome time in our country's history.
It was fun to learn about one of our bright lights, the birth of Jazz, and how Louis Armstrong, New Orlean's Boy Wonder started it all at a very young age. On the dark side, learning about the rise and growth of the Klu Klux Klan was deeply disturbing. Burn's retelling of the West Virginia coal miner's strike that caused fear in the hearts of Americans who worried about getting through the winter cold weather without heat, and how Teddy Roosevelt then President had to step in and negotiate us out of the mess, was also an eye-opening situation that can make us understand how very hard life in in the past was, and how incredibly lucky we are today.
There are two chapters that I found the highlights of the book. The first being the life and work of Margaret Sanger who fought for women to obtain birth control and her life work that ended up starting the Planned Parenthood Program. The second was the incredible life of con-man and financial wizard, Carlo Ponzi. He created the "Get-Rich-Quick Scheme" and was often sliding just a bit over the line of law and found himself in and out of jail, and exiled from country to country for his evil ways.
1920 was the year that Americans could first hear a radio broadcast so they could listen to election details, music and sports. It was also the year of the disastrous Harding administration, an incompetent President who hung out with his circle of criminal friends that were called the Ohio Gang. Ending this year of roller coaster events, Eric Burns finishes off with an interesting report on how new authors and styles of fictional novels turned the tide for literary history, as well as describes the wonderful world of the Harlem Renaissance and the great effects it had on the African Americans of the time.
I feel bad that there are a lot of negative or average reviews for this tremendously researched and marvelous retelling of an important year of our past. I absolutely loved the book and Highly recommend it to anyone who loves history. Five Star read for sure!
September 12, 2018
I am intrigued with the 1920s and I’ve always wanted to know more about them. Last year, I was really interested in World War I and I read several books of that nature. But just like World War II is incomplete without the reconstruction efforts, so is World War I incomplete with reconstruction. This text provides an interesting thesis regarding the reconstruction efforts post-World War I.
The thesis that Eric Burns purports essentially is this: the 1920s typified an era that dealt with social, political, and economic problems that we still face today. It opened a way for the rest of the “boom” of the 1920s era and with it prosperity and upheaval.
Some of the areas that Burns looks at are:
Prohibition – an example of government regulation and the deregulation of the 1920s
Margaret Sanger and Susan B. Anthony – female birth control and woman suffrage, respectively: an example of the feminist movement of the 1960s and the debate over women’s rights that has continued until the present.
The Ponzi Scheme – a now illegal business practice in which one person promises an investment return to many people and profits from the pool of money but is short when a run occurs. Made famous by Charles Ponzi who utilized and made famous such a scheme in 1920. Typifies the dark side of capitalism and the problems with deregulation.
Wall Street bombing – one of the first examples of domestic terrorism in America. An example of the modern War on Terrorism.
The Rise of Jazz – Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver and others brought this truly American art form to the forefront, starting in New Orleans and then moving to centers like Chicago and New York.
Woodrow Wilson – By the time the 1920s rolled around, Wilson was just a figurehead. His wife was the real “President.” Also an example of the sex war in this country.
F. Scott Fitzgerald – an example of the excesses of the 1920s.
There are other threads that are spun throughout this book, but these are just some of the more memorable ones. Burns makes a compelling argument and weaves them together through a journalistic perspective. This has been enough to get my palette wet for more.
The thesis that Eric Burns purports essentially is this: the 1920s typified an era that dealt with social, political, and economic problems that we still face today. It opened a way for the rest of the “boom” of the 1920s era and with it prosperity and upheaval.
Some of the areas that Burns looks at are:
Prohibition – an example of government regulation and the deregulation of the 1920s
Margaret Sanger and Susan B. Anthony – female birth control and woman suffrage, respectively: an example of the feminist movement of the 1960s and the debate over women’s rights that has continued until the present.
The Ponzi Scheme – a now illegal business practice in which one person promises an investment return to many people and profits from the pool of money but is short when a run occurs. Made famous by Charles Ponzi who utilized and made famous such a scheme in 1920. Typifies the dark side of capitalism and the problems with deregulation.
Wall Street bombing – one of the first examples of domestic terrorism in America. An example of the modern War on Terrorism.
The Rise of Jazz – Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver and others brought this truly American art form to the forefront, starting in New Orleans and then moving to centers like Chicago and New York.
Woodrow Wilson – By the time the 1920s rolled around, Wilson was just a figurehead. His wife was the real “President.” Also an example of the sex war in this country.
F. Scott Fitzgerald – an example of the excesses of the 1920s.
There are other threads that are spun throughout this book, but these are just some of the more memorable ones. Burns makes a compelling argument and weaves them together through a journalistic perspective. This has been enough to get my palette wet for more.
March 11, 2020
I was a little hesitant as to whether this would be of interest to me. However, I found it thorouhly absorbing and interesting. I'm not sure that the title is an accurate description of the period which was much broader covering most of the first three decades or so of the twentieth century. It contained many well researched accounts of the period written in an easily-read style.
The author made no real attempt to disguise his right wing leanings which regularly permeated the story. Anyone with left leanings were automatically described as anarchists, Bolsheviks, commos, and terrorists with the sole objective of bringing down the government. I'm sure that there is a large element of truth in this but question whether this should apply to all left-leaning citizens of that era. I was able to keep an open and independent mind and these descriptions didn't in any way detract from this excellent book.
I was somewhat taken back when reading the acknowledgments. He opens by mentioning his researcher, whom he says, "has quit on me. Just walked out, turned her back on me, closed the door behind her...I insist on taking her departure personally...perhaps it would be better that you leave me your phone number and ...we talk about this personally." I suspect this is some personal joke or understanding. Whatever, I'm not sure that the acknowledgements are the mst appropriate place for such cooments.behind her...I insist on taking her departure personally...perhaps it would be better that you leave me your phone number and ...we talk about this personally." I suspect this is some personal joke or understanding. Whatever, I'm not sure that the acknowledgements are the mst appropriate place for such cooments.
The author made no real attempt to disguise his right wing leanings which regularly permeated the story. Anyone with left leanings were automatically described as anarchists, Bolsheviks, commos, and terrorists with the sole objective of bringing down the government. I'm sure that there is a large element of truth in this but question whether this should apply to all left-leaning citizens of that era. I was able to keep an open and independent mind and these descriptions didn't in any way detract from this excellent book.
I was somewhat taken back when reading the acknowledgments. He opens by mentioning his researcher, whom he says, "has quit on me. Just walked out, turned her back on me, closed the door behind her...I insist on taking her departure personally...perhaps it would be better that you leave me your phone number and ...we talk about this personally." I suspect this is some personal joke or understanding. Whatever, I'm not sure that the acknowledgements are the mst appropriate place for such cooments.behind her...I insist on taking her departure personally...perhaps it would be better that you leave me your phone number and ...we talk about this personally." I suspect this is some personal joke or understanding. Whatever, I'm not sure that the acknowledgements are the mst appropriate place for such cooments.
September 30, 2017
Eric Burns' "1920: The Year That Made The Decade Roar" is a fun, informative read that, to me, is reminiscent of Bill Bryson's "One Summer: 1927." I don't think Burns has the same stylistic flair of Bryson, nor an equal comedic touch, but he's in the same ballpark. I found some subjects to be more interesting and enjoyable than others---not necessarily the author's fault. Burns chronicles Prohibition well. The bombing of Wall Street was detailed too. The same can be said for Paul Robeson, women's suffrage, Margaret Sanger and a whole host of other people and topics. I did not particularly enjoy his take on some of the writers of the era outside of, say, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, especially when Burns went off on what felt like a tangent of sorts of non-American authors. In addition, one of the big news stories of the year, Kinesaw Mountain Landis' decision to throw eight Chicago White Sox baseball players out of the game for life for throwing the 1918 World Series , was not discussed. All that being stated, I did like what I read and, this being my first Eric Burns book, I would read another.
June 7, 2021
Exactly two years ago I checked this book out from the library, excited about getting a jump on 2020 with recapping the year that arrived a century before. Instead I learned a valuable lesson that apparently you don't have to know what you're doing to get a book published. "1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar" was a terrible read, and I'll never read anything written by Eric Burns again.
Don't want to waste too much time on this work (because Burns certainly didn't), so my criticisms shall be brief:
• Most of the book had nothing to do with 1920 (felt like I fell for clickbait on a shelf)
• The history organization was chaotic, chapters disjointed, and drama forced
• The dude actually quotes himself from other books he's written
• The writing style, if it even had one, was unpleasant; felt like the author's notecards were just lined up and typed out for his manuscript
• Whatever parts I did find interesting are most likely equivalent to what I could find on Wikipedia
Two years after I started the book, I still can't seem to bring myself to finish the last two chapters... and I don't care.
Don't want to waste too much time on this work (because Burns certainly didn't), so my criticisms shall be brief:
• Most of the book had nothing to do with 1920 (felt like I fell for clickbait on a shelf)
• The history organization was chaotic, chapters disjointed, and drama forced
• The dude actually quotes himself from other books he's written
• The writing style, if it even had one, was unpleasant; felt like the author's notecards were just lined up and typed out for his manuscript
• Whatever parts I did find interesting are most likely equivalent to what I could find on Wikipedia
Two years after I started the book, I still can't seem to bring myself to finish the last two chapters... and I don't care.
February 7, 2023
I enjoyed this book that was always just loosely confined to the year that is in the title -- until the last, (and shortest of the entire book) chapter on the flapper. Where before in every previous chapter he had taken care to try to be fair and as unbiased as possible with all sorts of characters (Italian anarchists, paranoid Attorney Generals, even corrupt Harding and cronies), the author suddenly becomes incredibly derisive of the flapper. He tsk-tsks her as just a product of sensationalist journalists, a mere attention whore- and usually an actual whore, an indication that Burns won't give her any time of day- who didnt really represent her decade and would have disappointed all the Mothers of the Suffragist Movement (who were all dead before 1920, but all received tiny bios in the book). No flapper is named, no one life, not even a fledgling Hollywood starlet, is highlighted. Her chapter is just what Burns admits it is, a footnote. Unimportant. We get it. She isn't the right kind of woman to look too long at. We've been listening to this song a long time.
February 23, 2017
Parts of this book were excellent. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the Harding administration, and the dissection of the Wall Street bombing. However, Burns never goes into much detail about the interesting things he's talking about, and instead divulges way too much information about things no one is interested in, or that aren't relevant, or that go into unnecessary detail on the backstory of certain people or events.
On the whole, I would not recommend this book. Burns is dismissive of the rise of feminist culture, and flappers in general. He doesn't cover any new ground with this book, and while his writing style is readable, he indulges his own interests in other time periods (the 1970s and 1880s are the ones that I remember specifically), often to the detriment of his thesis--that 1920 was one of the most historically significant years of the 20th Century.
On the whole, I would not recommend this book. Burns is dismissive of the rise of feminist culture, and flappers in general. He doesn't cover any new ground with this book, and while his writing style is readable, he indulges his own interests in other time periods (the 1970s and 1880s are the ones that I remember specifically), often to the detriment of his thesis--that 1920 was one of the most historically significant years of the 20th Century.
May 4, 2017
Interesting history, though he fails at his theoretical thesis promised in the title, that is that someone could tell the history of a single year. In fact, Burns chooses 1920 as a touchstone to tell the story of a few different narratives, jazz, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Planned Parenthood, relations between capital and labor, etc. To show how hard it is for someone to tell history as a single year, Burns tells the complete story of the Wilson and Harding administration. The story of the Wilson administration needs to be told so that one can understand how the Wilson administration works in the 1920's. But Harding did not take his place until March of 1921.
Still, its a really good history, if you just think of it as a history of the 1920's.
Still, its a really good history, if you just think of it as a history of the 1920's.
January 24, 2018
I really enjoyed this examination underneath the surface of the 20s. There were so many historical persons and events that I had never heard of or lightly understood which, now, I’m enthusiastic to read more about. Just to name a few; Lucy Stone, Henry Johnson, Black Star Line, and Margaret Sanger.
The rise of radio, marketing, alcohol, music, poetry/literature, the car, and more; so much got a momentous push from this time frame. For women, it was radical; the passage of the 19th Amendment – the ability to vote. Other social struggles were just as colorful - WWI. As with any war – technology boomed – airlines, electricity, steel for infrastructure, and ends with a specular face plant with the stock market crash. The info on the 18th Amendment is well worth researching.
The rise of radio, marketing, alcohol, music, poetry/literature, the car, and more; so much got a momentous push from this time frame. For women, it was radical; the passage of the 19th Amendment – the ability to vote. Other social struggles were just as colorful - WWI. As with any war – technology boomed – airlines, electricity, steel for infrastructure, and ends with a specular face plant with the stock market crash. The info on the 18th Amendment is well worth researching.
April 22, 2021
A solid work of scholarship on a really crazy year in American history. This is a wonderful resource on Ponzi, Harding, Garvey, and a boatload of other historical figures that made both the year and the following decade intriguing and controversial. It skims the surface of most topics, but this book is solid at engaging the reader with just enough detail to satisfy and possibly encourage further exploration. For example, if the politics of the 1920 election is just not enough, then one could read the wonderful book by Pietrusza on it. I found the sections on Charles Ponzi and the Wall Street bombing and the subsequent investigation to be the most engaging. It has a little for any historical scholar without becoming to dull with detail.
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