Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s [Paperback]

Ann Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1996

Terrible Honesty is the biography of a decade, a portrait of the soul of a generation - based on the lives and work of more than a hundred men and women. In a strikingly original interpretation that brings the Jazz Age to life in a wholly new way, Ann Douglas arugues that when, after World War I, the United States began to assume the economic and political leadership of the West, New York became the heart of a daring and accomplished historical transformation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald et al. were finding Paris a movable feast, for hundreds of other American artists, writers and musicians who remained at home, Manhattan in the 1920s was a kind of Roman candle hurtling into hyperborean space, its glitter and energy sparking a decade of creativity. And though the expatriates were mining established European cultures, for them, too, Manhattan was their defining center, whether escaping or embracing it. This book is a cornucopia of anecdote and commentary on some 120 stars of the Jazz Age. Douglas (The Feminization of American Culture) devotes considerable attention to the city's impact on the legendary black musicians and theirs on it; to its architectural ebullience; and above all to the literary and publishing mavens who worshipped the integrity of the word-the "terrible honesty" of her title. This is a sprawling, erudite, provocative study of an expanding artistic universe that crashed with the Depression and, like it, left a powerful imprint on the American consciousness. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Douglas (The Feminization of American Culture, 1978) here concentrates on Manhattan in the 1920s, with an emphasis on the Harlem Renaissance. More than just a portait of New York in the Jazz Age, this work is a social and intellectual history of the United States. It covers American literature, music, and architecture and discusses the influences of Freud, William James, and matriarchy on early 20th-century thought. Exhaustively researched, the narrative introduces a large cast of protagonists and features lots of anecdotes, plot summaries, and discussion of popular music. Douglas shows how the intellectual life of one city in one decade was such an important part of American cultural history. For informed lay readers and scholars generally.
Gary Williams, Southeastern Ohio Regional Lib., Caldwell
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 606 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (January 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374524629
• ISBN-13: 978-0374524623
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #804,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed, Scholarly Manhattan in the 1920's..., January 30, 2002

By 

S. Henkels (Devon, Pa United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (Paperback)

I don't know why this awesome book has negative reviews here. It is a little difficult true. But for a New Yorkphile, like me, it can't be beat, if you want to know New York in the 1920's, and to a lesser degree the nation. All the familiar names are covered: Scott and Zelda, Woolcott, Parker, Gerstein Stein, Freud,Jazz and Ellington among many others. New York as a huge rush for outsiders from their first sight. The skyscraper boom, and builders and architects. The movie industry.The extreme dangers of transatlantic flights, and coast to coast mail deliveries. The Harlem Renaissance, basically the city as a reinventing, percolating tornado.FDR, Damon Runyan,Irving Berlin,WEB Dubois,Singing the Blues, Mary Pickford, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Walker (the fun loving mayor with questionable morals)the Great White Way, the Cotton Club...It is just about an endless ride thru this great town in the 1920's and beyond, including the aftershock of the 1930's...Sometimes a little difficult, but you can browse through the index too and find hundreds of worthy subjects to check out...One of the best journeys through a time and place that I know!! Also with some interesting photos too.

4 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious undertaking, August 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (Paperback)

Remarkable book. My only complaint is that sometimes the details become overwhelming and the book loses its focus. That seems to be the product of its (maybe overly) ambitious scope. It bites off a lot but it also delivers a lot.

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars To be Terribly Honest, February 3, 2011

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Readtoomuch - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (Paperback)

This book is close to horrible. The book says it is about Manhattan in the 1920s (or at least the subheading suggests this) but the book instead meanders through various issues that are slightly related to the 1920s and even more slightly related to manhattan. In almost 600 pages, the author does little more than confuse her reader. She talks about Freud, Hemingway, Stein, Crane, Jung, and numerous others, but your powers of reasoning really have to be used to figure out how these characters have any relevance to her supposed theme of Manhattan in the 1920s. She seems to have gotten lost in her own thoughts for the better part of the book. I'm sure there are some important points in this book, but it needs some major editing or to be broken into volumes.