Outline Ch.8 Hoffman's "The Twenties"

"The Twenties" by Frederick HoffmanHoffman Ch. 8: "Some Perspectives on the 1920s"

I. The Snow of 1929
a. "Not long after October 1929 people began to regret the 1920s, to renounce the sins of a ‘wasted decade'; they admitted they had had a good time while the ‘gaudiest spree in history' had lasted, but they were ready to assume the roles of adults, mature persons." (Hoffman 416)
b. "To the men who fought in WWII and survived it, the 1920s seemed either a period of amusing but stupid gaiety or a horrible and expensive example of what the 'irresponsibles' could cost a nation with moral and military commitments to the world." (Hoffman 422)
c. "Such a judgement of the 1920s was a complex of both leftist and liberal views; the Marxist condemnation, relieved of its economic emphasis, became wholly moral and wholly traditional." (Hoffman 423)

II. "Spirits Grown Eliotic"
a. "One the general images the literature of the decade impressed upon us, two are especially vivid as ‘classical' reminders of the time: the ‘pathos of the adolescent' and the ‘unregenerate bohemian'." (Hoff 426). "The unregenerate bohemian was an extreme form of what has been an important contribution to modern culture:the emphasis, the insistence, upon the value of personal vision." (Hoff 428)
b. "The absurdities of the bourgeois mind and soul, the deformities of its architecture and its conscience, were never so fully documented." (Hoff 429). "If the twenties in America can be condemned seriously for a fault, it is not their vulgarity or for their immorality. The greatest fault was their naivette." (Hoff 430)

III. The Uses of Innocence
a. "The positive values of the 1920s may perhaps best be suggested in the phrase ‘useful innocence. The truth is that the writers of the 1920s, finding a world that seemed cut free of the past, had to invent new combinations of spirit and matter and new forms of expressing the human drama." (Hoff 434) After WWI America could never be the same, it had lost is innocence and traditional literary methods would not work anymore because they had not experienced the inexplicable trauma of war. Art had to change to express the emotions felt after WWI. "Having rejected all precedents, the writers of the 1920s themselves became precedents for the literature of future decades." (Hoff 435)

Comments: 12

Connie C. Jun 30, 2007, 11:51am EDT

This is very interesting.

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Sandy (Site Psychic™) Knauer Jun 30, 2007, 11:56am EDT

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I can't find the photos.

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Elsie Duggan Jun 30, 2007, 12:21pm EDT

Having been born in 1926, I find this article very interesting, yes nothing was ever the same after WW1 and the roaring twenties came in. My mother's wedding dress was beautiful but well above the knee, a real Flapper dress.

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Sophiya S. Jun 30, 2007, 1:43pm EDT

thanks

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Sophiya S. Jun 30, 2007, 1:45pm EDT

sorry Sandy, I simply forgot to add the photos ;)

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Sophiya S. Jun 30, 2007, 1:48pm EDT

Elsie, that is so fascinating. The 20s was a very powerful decade. I love the Flapper fashion.

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Dorry Catherine P. Jun 30, 2007, 4:57pm EDT

Wonderful outline--This era is fascinating and eery. Yep, eery, the calm before the storm I say as we are beginning now to move into the storm--nicely done.

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