The Big Change: America Transforms Itself: 1900-1950.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952.
New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
London: Routledge, 1993.
Book Information: Publisher, Routledge; Google Books; Amazon.com.
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Author Information:
- Frederick Lewis Allen (1890–1954), Wikipedia.
- Frederick Lewis Allen, Harper's Magazine (subscription required).
- Frederick Lewis Allen. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. New York: Harper & Row, 1931. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - Frederick Lewis Allen. The Lords of Creation. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. Open Road Media, 2014.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - Frederick Lewis Allen. Since Yesterday: The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939. New York: Harper & Row, 1940. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.] - Frederick Lewis Allen. The Great Pierpont Morgan. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949. Open Road Media, 2016.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Audio: Frederick Lewis Allen
- Eleanor Ruggles, Maurice Herzog, and Frederick Lewis Allen, "Book and Author Luncheon," New York Herald Tribune and the American Booksellers Association, The NYPR Archive Collections, WNYC, 10 March 1953.
Mr. Allen's talk begins around time 34:30.- Eleanor Ruggles (1916–2008), Wikipedia (German).
- Gloria Negri, "Eleanor O'Leary, 92; was biographer, book reviewer," The Boston Globe, 20 July 2008.
- Eleanor Ruggles. Prince of Players: Edwin Booth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1953.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.] - Maurice Herzog (1919–2012), Wikipedia.
- Maurice Herzog. Annapurna. 1951. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1952.
[Wikipedia; Google Books, 1952; Amazon.com, 2010.]
Wikipedia Articles:
- History of the United States: 20th century.
- Economic history of the United States: Early 20th century.
The author Frederick Lewis Allen is best known today for his popular histories of the 1920s and 1930s in Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday. However, The Big Change is not like those previous books.
Two aspects of the The Big Change stand out for me. First, the book focuses on the contrast between 1900 and 1950. History usually tells a story of the path between points A and B, rather than just describing conditions at A and B. The Big Change does not go into much detail about how various social changes, political reforms, business developments, and technological innovations occurred. While the character of life in 1900 and the dramatic changes visible by 1950 are well described by Allen and very interesting to me, I found this part of the book unsatisfying.
Second, the historical change in the United States between 1900 and 1950 is subordinate to another aspect of the book. I dislike the following phrase, but it concisely, and I think accurately, describes The Big Change: "Cold War propaganda". Recall that the book was published in 1952 and Cold War pressures clearly influenced Allen in writing the book. You can hear this in Allen's talk at the "Book and Author Luncheon" (link above). The primary objective of The Big Change is to instruct Cold War critics of the United States, foreign and domestic, about the positive aspects American society. As much as I may agree with Allen, nevertheless, reading this book 65 years after its publication and 26 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this defensive aspect of the book seems awkward.
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