Book Review: The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s

Summary

The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s by Lynn Dumenil was written in 1995, and it is an interpretation of the dramatic, important, and misunderstood decade. Dumenil is a professor of American History at Occidental College. Dumenil is also the editor in chief of the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. Dumenil describes the misinterpretation of the decade that took place in America during that time. As she writes, she makes her work clear. She interprets what happened in the 1920s, the age of the end of the Victorian era, urban liberalism emerging, the federal bureaucracy expanding, pluralism becoming important to American society. The emergence of different religions, ethnic, cultural groupings. Dumenil starts the book discussing the two eras that are sandwiched into the 1920s the progressive period and the New Deal and the decade’s public and private power. This book brings the developments of these aspects into sharp focus. Dumenil expresses her concern on the viewing of the 1920s as being a “fascination for the decade’s drama. (Dumenil 1) Dumenil discusses the fascination of how students are so into the richness of the 1920s in which students believe that the 1920s were all about The Great Gatsby. Dumenil discusses a key image that was enduring as the image of “the roaring twenties.” She discusses how people understand the life period to be fast, propelled by riches and social values changing constantly. She also remarks on the 1920s being so irresistible because of the women, ethnicity, and leisure. Dumenil also discusses the characterization of the 1920s being modern. She explains this because of the rapid industrialization during the time. The development of industrialization changed work and daily life, creating an extensive network of corporations into a national economy.

How does it fit into the larger historiography of the 1920s?

Like other author’s reflecting on the 1920s Dumenil talks about how forthcoming and industrialized America was becoming. Concepts like immigration, women are displayed in Dumenil’s work. Dumenil also talks about the environment of what the 1920s’ was. She describes the comparison of the stereotypical image of the 1920s and the reality of the 1920s. Other historiographers have discussed this phenomenon of how people imagine the 1920s to be a “romantic time period” but as Jennifer Fronc writes, she discusses that it was” a struggle and challenge to American’s democratic institutions in the post-World War I period. (Fronc)” Like Dumenil, Fronc discusses women’s suffrage, prohibition and immigration.

What does it provide to a reader in the 1920s?

Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s by Lynn Dumenil would create interest readers who want to know about the 1920s because it clarifies the effects before and after the 1920s. As Dumenil states, a lot of what the population thinks of what the 1920s is about are about the “great Gatsby ideals” that make up the 1920s. But in reality such an extensive list such as the creation of Micky Mouse , Albert Einstein making groundbreaking discoveries, and the Yankees winning the 1923 World Series. These are just a list of topics that happened during this time period other than big dramatic house parties.

Bibliography

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.

Podair, J. and Dochuk, D., n.d. The Routledge history of the twentieth-century United States., 2018