Customer Reviews

The World Does Move

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tarkington has filled a book with a hodge-podge of essays and short stories on the coming of the mechanical age. The book covers the changes of people's morals and habits with the coming of electricity, cars, and other inventions. The perspective is written by someone who has lived through the tumultuous changes of the time.

Each story or chapter explains exactly what impact a particular invention made upon society. The biggest one, according to Tarkington, is the car. The car appears to have ushered in major societal changes: people went into debt to purchase one, people's live became more rushed and hurried, speed was important, they became a status symbol, necking parties occurred, women cut their hair and wore short clothes so as not to be harassed by the wind. The book also mentions the invention of the airplane, electricity, women's suffrage, prohibition, and the introduction of "sex" plays, novels, and movies. Also, the changing of the moral guard is also written about.

This book is more like a Tarkington-perspective history book rather than a work of fiction. Also, those who wonder why the moral changes in the youth of today and yesterday can look into this book and see that people back at the turn of the century were raising the same questions and were dealing with the same issues. Tarkington attempts to answer them, but I felt his answers and explanations fell short. The book was also a bit of a challenge to read -- as sometimes it drifted into very deep and subjects. Also, the chapters themselves were discontinuous and were jumpy. This is not a book for light reading (like many other Tarkington novels).