Customer Reviews

The End of American Innocence: A Study of First Years of Our Own Time, 1912-1917

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Henry May's work clearly exposes the ways in which American society moved out of the Victorian era and toward a vibrant reform period that most think occurred actually after the end of World War I. May shows through the actions and words of prominent figures ranging from literary figures, university presidents, and persons in prominent social positions that the undercurrent for such reform long predated 1919 and significant progress was undertaken to erode and eventually collapse whatever was left of the Victorian era before and during the war. May's work poignantly illustrates that for a person to properly view the Roaring Twenties, he must first begin in the early 1910s. The major difficulty here is that May states that his work lives in the field of cultural history yet he focuses exclusively on prominent persons, mostly well-to-do and powerful, and does not include any reference to the average people. He hints at and points to ordinary citizens but does not afford them the same coverage as the other characters who comprise the bulk of his work. Notwithstanding that sway in focus, this work remains a vital looking glass view into the inception of the post World War I era.