"Flapper" Book Review

Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Blithely flinging aside the Victorian manners that kept her disapproving mother corseted, the New Woman of the 1920s puffed cigarettes, snuck gin, hiked her hemlines, danced the Charleston, and necked in roadsters. More important, she earned her own keep, controlled her own destiny, and secured liberties that modern women take for granted. Her newfound freedom heralded a radical change in American culture.

"Whisking us from the Alabama country club where Zelda Sayre first caught the eye of F. Scott Fitzgerald to Muncie, Indiana, where would-be flappers begged their mothers for silk stockings, to the Manhattan speakeasies where patrons partied till daybreak, historian Joshua Zeitz brings the era to exhilarating life. This is the story of America’s first sexual revolution, its first merchants of cool, its first celebrities, and its most sparkling advertisement for the right to pursue happiness.

"The men and women who made the flapper were a diverse lot. 

"There was Coco Chanel, the French orphan who redefined the feminine form and silhouette, helping to free women from the torturous corsets and crinolines that had served as tools of social control. 

"Three thousand miles away, Lois Long, the daughter of a Connecticut clergyman, christened herself 'Lipstick' and gave New Yorker readers a thrilling entrée into Manhattan’s extravagant Jazz Age nightlife.

"In California, where orange groves gave way to studio lots and fairytale mansions, three of America’s first celebrities—Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, and Louise Brooks, Hollywood’s great flapper triumvirate—fired the imaginations of millions of filmgoers.

"Dallas-born fashion artist Gordon Conway and Utah-born cartoonist John Held crafted magazine covers that captured the electricity of the social revolution sweeping the United States.

"Bruce Barton and Edward Bernays, pioneers of advertising and public relations, taught big business how to harness the dreams and anxieties of a newly industrial America—and a nation of consumers was born.

"Towering above all were Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, whose swift ascent and spectacular fall embodied the glamour and excess of the era that would come to an abrupt end on Black Tuesday, when the stock market collapsed and rendered the age of abundance and frivolity instantly obsolete.

"With its heady cocktail of storytelling and big ideas, Flapper is a dazzling look at the women who launched the first truly modern decade."

I've always liked and had an interest in the flapper and the 1920's. It seemed unusual that in such a short amount of time, not even two decades, the flapper changed the course of women in American society and it was fascinating to read about how and why this occurred. All of these changes happening at once: women entering the workforce, people moving en masse to cities, the proliferation of ready-made clothing, a whole new genre of music being played in the streets, the Feminist Movement, Prohibition and speakeasies, the movie industry and the birth of Hollywood and celebrity, and with that, the new gossip rags. It seems sad that, with the flick of a switch, the flapper was no more. The economy grew so large that it couldn't contain itself and it collapsed. Very like what just so recently happened.

Some of it I already knew about, like how the advertising business started (I have a degree in graphic design and we had to learn about it), I knew most of the authors and the Lost Generation set, the clothing and their designers (although I did not know about Mademoiselle Vionnet and Paul Poiret), and I had heard about the Hollywood starlets, but didn't know much about them so that was interesting.

Lois Long/Lipstick was a fascinating person and I would love to read more about her. Her persona reminded me of the tv series and book series "Gossip Girl". It wouldn't surprise me at all if the original author had been inspired.

I didn't realize how racist everything was, but that shouldn't really be a surprise I guess. Sadly, this book was very white-washed. African American flappers were briefly discussed, but there was no mention of musicians, or how Jazz music started, no Langston Hughes?! Come on now, his poetry is absolutely beautiful and some of the only poetry I ever liked! A Chinese American actress was mentioned, but she wasn't spoken about in depth like the other actresses in the book. I would've liked to have known where she came from and where she ended up. Jazz music was such an important part of this time period and, as an American, I take pride in it because it is one of the few art forms that America came up with and gave to the rest of the world. Think about it, most other popular music forms started elsewhere and is very old and steeped in tradition. In comparison, Jazz is very new to this world.

Also, artists of the time and the Art Deco movement was missing completely. Not even mentioned. Very disappointed with that. Cole Porter and the Ziegfeld Follies were mentioned, but they weren't the only things happening on Broadway.

Even with all that information missing, I enjoyed reading it. It was more of an incomplete summarization of an era, rather than a well thought-out history. It could've used some more psychological assessment of the people of the age. I mean, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were right there. Overall, I would consider this a good book to start off reading about the 1920s. Just don't expect A LOT of information about the era.

View all my reviews

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.