Description:
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
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