By the 1920s; women were on the verge of something huge. Jazz; racy fashions; eyebrowraising new attitudes about art and sex―all of this pointed to a sleek; modern world; one that could shake off the grimness of the Great War and stride into the future in one deft; stylized gesture. The women who defined this the Jazz Age―Josephine Baker; Tallulah Bankhead; Diana Cooper; Nancy Cunard; Zelda Fitzgerald; and Tamara de Lempicka―would presage the sexual revolution by nearly half a century and would shape the role of women for generations to come.In Flappers; the acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell renders these women with all the color that marked their lives and their era. Both sensuous and sympathetic; her admiring biography lays bare the private lives of her heroines; filling in the bold contours. These women came from vastly different backgrounds; but all ended up passing through Paris; the mecca of the avant-garde. Before she was the toast of Parisian society; Josephine Baker was a poor black girl from the slums of Saint Louis. Tamara de Lempicka fled the Russian Revolution only to struggle to scrape together a life for herself and her family. A committed painter; her portraits were indicative of the age's art deco sensibility and sexual daring. The Brits in the group―Nancy Cunard and Diana Cooper― came from pinkie-raising aristocratic families but soon descended into the salacious delights of the vanguard. Tallulah Bankhead and Zelda Fitzgerald were two Alabama girls driven across the Atlantic by a thirst for adventure and artistic validation.But beneath the flamboyance and excess of the Roaring Twenties lay age-old prejudices about gender; race; and sexuality. These flappers weren't just dancing and carousing; they were fighting for recognition and dignity in a male-dominated world. They were more than mere lovers or muses to the modernist masters―in their pursuit of fame and intense experience; we see a generation of women taking bold steps toward something burgeoning; undefined; maybe dangerous: a New Woman.
#87913 in Books 2015-01-27 2015-01-27Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 234.95 x 1.63 x 6.31l; 1.00 #File Name: 0374280908752 pages
Review
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. In These Times Living in Britain Through the Napoleonic Wars is a tour de force by famed British historian Dr. Jenny Uglow!By C. M MillsIn These Times is a long book covering a long war. The struggle against the Napoleonic armies of Revolutionary France lasted from 1993 to the dictator s ultimate defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Historian Jenny Uglow devotes over seven hundred pages to the impact this struggle for British survival cost the English people. The book is lavishly illustrated with period cartoons . The book extensively quotes from first person diaries; letters and books written during the period. Among the luminaries we learn more about:"George III and the governments who served Great Britain from the Tory leadership under William Pitt the Younger to the Addison and coaltion governments.We tour Great Britain from Wales to Scotland and the rebellious Irish to see how the people earned a living from working long hours in mills; sewing; farming; soldiering and making iron. We see these professions under the realization that British industrial growth though nascent was rap[id and ever expanding.Uglow is good is showing us how the British soldier was equipped with weaponry and lived life in a dangerous time. She is also good in exploring life aboard ship in the British navy as the tars of old England defeated the French navy. A chapter is given to Trafalgar and the death of Admiral Horatio Nelson.Uglow examines the lives and work of such poets as Robert Burns; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; William Wordsworth William Blake and others Jane Austen and her sailor family as well as Sir Walter Scott are discussed. The book is filled with poetry from the era.. This book is a joy to hold and read! The print is large and clear'; the illustrations a marvel and the writing topnotch! Well recommended! The book is a pleasure to read and savor the words and pictures of a nation emerging as the most powerful empire in the world8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. I bought this book after a good review in a recent issue of the Wall Street ...By TomI bought this book after a good review in a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal. (I was not familiar with Uglow's work. My loss.) Absolutely loved this inside look at life and culture in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. Wonderful anecdotes; stories; facts; etc.; sweeping the reader through a domesticated adventure!5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. History viewed from how it affected the more common man.By 18DGreat view of normal life during the Napoleonic wars in England. The style of writing was clear and understandable and brought the opinions of the more middle of the road people to light. I have been familiar with the opinions of those of the upper class who wrote novels (like Jane Austen) but did not understand how small bankers and farmers were fairing; and especially did not really understand how the factory workers; soldiers and sailors suffered during the two decades of the war. I was also interested to see just how much the American revolution cost the English and how far into debt all these wars forced England.
