Paul Sann (1914–1986)

Discover what made the Twenties roar with this sensational retrospective. Ranging from the end of the First World War to the New Deal, it portrays the lawless era in which old traditions were discarded and the nation went on a binge that changed American life forever. This colorful and informative year-by-year jaunt through the 1920s covers politics, crime, arts, sports, society, and culture. Hundreds of photographs depict the era's most noteworthy events and personalities, including gangsters, flappers, and movie stars.… (altro)

Sann was an executive editor at the New York Times who started out as a reporter in the 1920's and this breezy book is a collection of various events of the Roaring Twenties that made headlines in the first tabloid era. The choices made here are entirely arbitrary and reflect the personal interests of the author, some of them may have been stories he worked on at the time. They therefore range from sports, crime, politics, Hollywood, various scandals and whatever personal interest stories happened to catch his eye. They are arranged chronologically as they occurred rather than thematically so important issues and personalities like prohibition, Lindberg, Warren Harding, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, Sacco and Vanzetti, The Chicago Black Sox scandal, Fatty Arbuckle, Al Smith and the 1928 election, Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Al Capone, Eugene Debs and the 1929 Crash compete for space with crimes, scandals and sports events now long forgotten. All written in a casual winking style that does require that readers know a few things about the era. I've read this book literally dozens of times since discovering it as a youth and still enjoy leafing through it. Since Sann did not cover international affairs there is barely a mention of figures like Hitler, Lenin and Mussolini which is little strange, but probably accurately reflects the unabashedly isolationist era. One odd omission though; Sann's apparent compete disinterest of the music scene of the era. Since the twenties is the birth of the modern music industry and the era of many classic figures of jazz, blues and country, and is commonly known as The Jazz Age this is especially glaring. There is also even less mention of the art scene of the era, since this would include the whole Art Deco scene along with Cubism, Dadism, Surrealism, Expressionism, The Group of Seven, Edward Hopper and Pablo Piccaso this is also a notable loss. Still this is a fun introduction to the era and an excellent read.… (altro)