Michael E. Parrish

An excellent introduction to US history between the two WW. The Twenties and Thirties are two very different periods in American life, so the two halves of the book are necessarily very different both with regard to the material presented and the way it is presented.

The first half deals with the Roaring Twenties, which was a decades of wild innovation in many fields, including the way people conducted their own life. This part of the book in fact focuses a lot on the way life changed, how it was different from the previous decades, in particular with regards to the new consuming society. Because of the focus on the changes, not much is said about the actual daily routine, which I'd have liked to know more about, but it was very interesting regardless. The radio, the car, various tools for the housekeeping, electricity, a lot of what we take for granted today first entered people's life during the Twenties.
Social issues are also touched, if in an essential manner: the new woman, immigration, the way race was dealt with (in a new way, in many respects), and also how some ideas stubbornly tried to remain attached to the past (the Scopes trial, the KKK, Prohibition). The Twenties were certainly years of huge contradictions.
A good chunk of the book is devoted to the personalities that shaped the decade, people like Ford, Harding, Rockfeller. They are presented both as contributors to a changing world and real people with their own personality.
The political and economical life of the nation is covered, but it looks like just one of the many aspects of the decade.

The second half of the book deals with the Great Depression. It is obviously very different from the first, not only because the Thirties' mood was so vastly different from the Twenties', but also because the author focuses on different matters.
Here, the political and economical life of the nation takes over, focusing on the huge personality of president Roosevelt and his political action. The way the Depression spread over the country is seen with the eyes of the politician first of all, then with those of people living it, and suffering for it. Still the author's attention is always ultimately on people, so, even following the action of the government step by step, describing bills and agencies created to contrast the Depression (the WPA, the CIO and the like) what the book is about is always people in the end.

There's a lot more to know about the Twenties and Thirties, still this is an excellent starting point.… (altro)