What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century [Hardcover]

Henry Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2000

This treasure of a book gives us a vivid and captivating evocation of the social, cultural, and spiritual tenor of the twentieth century, decade by remarkable decade.

        Henry Allen--veteran feature writer and editor at the Washington Post--reminds us of just how it was: "the champagne disenchantment of the tuxedo twenties. Husbands who lost Depression jobs and hid in their houses for shame, the October morning energy of the postwar forties, the dusty heat of fifties television sets, the smell of Vitalis on men's hair, women in gloves that felt sexy touching your skin, men who whistled (with trills) and wore hats tipped to one side, the barefoot LSD weddings when the universe seemed a conspiracy in everyone's favor. . . . "

        Each of these ten chapters is a virtual time capsule written with keen intelligence, feeling, and an uncanny sense of the essential experiences of the era: the unexpected, idiosyncratic sights, sounds, occasions, and events that defined not just the time but the way we remember it.  This is a book of myriad pleasures--a reminder, as we plunge headlong into the future, of the richness and importance of our past.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire once said that each age has "a deportment, a glance, a smile of its own." In What it Felt Like, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Henry Allen captures the spirit of the 20th century decade by decade in a sparkling little book that reads like a Lily Tomlin-meets-Gallagher monologue (minus the watermelon). Ten brief chapters describe the sights, sounds, and smells of the decade, from the "good years" of 1900-1910 to the "whatever" decade of the 1990s. Allen also manages to convey the "feel" of the times, dispelling some myths along the way. For example, he points out that for most people, the Depression of the 1930s was not so much about what one saw (breadlines, Hoovervilles), but what wasn't there: cars on the street, new babies, factory whistles, construction sites. And in the pièce de résistance, Allen describes the 1980s as the "Air Guitar Decade"--in which symbol became substance: "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on T.V...." Though the focus is primarily on the urban northeast, these witty little time capsules, sure to inspire nostalgia, are an excellent guide to America's past. --M. Stein

From Booklist

Allen, a longtime feature writer and editor for the Washington Post , examines the last century, decade by decade. To capture a particular decade's "feeling," Allen incorporates small mountains of details--food and clothes, slang and posture, issues and idols--in each essay, often including fictional conversations between individuals who are somehow representative. These essays are sometimes contrarian, reminding readers, for example, that most 60s young people neither fought in Vietnamese jungles nor marched for civil rights and against the war. Still, the dominant news stories of that (or any) decade are inevitably part of what defines the experience of the era. Not a replacement for a solid history of twentieth-century America, but a useful supplement to such a history. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1ST edition (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375420630
• ISBN-13: 978-0375420634
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,583,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Henry Allen Really Knows What It Felt Like!, October 10, 2000

By 

JA Thiele (Los Angeles, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century (Hardcover)

What It Felt Like is the perfect description of this little jewel of a book. I read it, I looked at the illlustrations, and I could smell the leaves burning on the road outside our house at dusk; I could hear the sound of my jump rope swishing across the pavement of our small town street. I could smell the bacon and eggs my mother cooked for us on school mornings (and then I could remember the smell of the grits which I hated!). I know, I finally know, why the sixties seemed so dizzying to me, not because Allen lectures me on them, but because he wakens my senses of them -- the sights, the sounds, and the sweetness of them.

How lovely to be reminded and not "talked to." This book is not a "tome." What It Felt Like is an invitation to recall, to reflect, to rejoice. How delightful to read a book where the mere phrase, often followed by an electrifyingly exciting tour de force of word combinations, does all the work, and I have all the fun. How extraordinary to find a writer who so clearly treasures the true glory of words, and not just the abundance of them.

What a wonderful Christmas gift Mr. Allen has given us. I'm going to give it to my children and my friends, and my neighbors and ....

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ALLEN KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE, October 4, 2000

By 

Xavier Onnasis (Calais, ME) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century (Hardcover)

In this book, Henry Allen, one of the Washington POST's big dogs, has written beautifully of our past century. He celebrates America from the start of "Modern Times" to the edgy reality of Today.

His unerring hand captures the essence of each decade with the keen eyes and ears of a participant. Remarkably, his skill reveals even the rich patois of early dialogues; capturing the meter and parlance of the day-to-day conversations of the early 1900's and beyond.

As he takes us on this compelling jaunt through the decades, a marvelous story of The People of the past unfolds. Allen treats the reader's senses to vivid visual history, too, seasoning our "conventional wisdom" with a masterful dash of his always believable characteriztions.

Originally published in The POST, the series was immediately snagged by the publisher for this release.

Allen, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has captured my imagination with "What It Felt Like." In this highly readable, enjoyable book, he moves easily from scenes of the chattering bustle of the Industrial Revolution to the brilliant sunshine of the acid-drenched, screwy Sixties. From the agonies of the Thirties to the boomtime of the Fifties.

I urge you to pick up a copy, curl up on a lazy day and enjoy one of my new favorite books. A thoroughly enjoyable "read."

PS to GRAND PARENTS: Why not give copies to the kids and the family this Christmas? "What It Felt Like" is a great conversation starter.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What It Felt Like, November 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century (Hardcover)

It is a daunting task to capture the essence of the 20th Century in one book, but Henry Allen has done it to a faretheewell. The format is one that holds one's attention with wonderful language and imagery. It is humorous and enchanting at the same time. Obviously, Mr. Allen did not live through the entire century, but he writes about each decade so believably that he takes you on a journey with him that places you in the middle of daily life in each of the decades. The technique is wonderful, and the book is a joy.