Twenties London A City in the Jazz Age

by Ross, Cathy

• ISBN13: 9780856675683
• ISBN10: 0856675687
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-17
• Publisher: Philip Wilson Pub Ltd

Summary

This highly illustrated survey of the twentieth century?s most exciting decade examines the art, design, fashion and architecture of 1920s? London alongside wider social and political ideas about Britain, modernism, mass democracy and popular culture. The book provides a framework for understanding the cultural maelstrom of the decade. London was at the heart of all the 1920s? debates about Britain?s future. What was the London of the future to be in a world shaken by catastrophic wars, revolutions and scientific miracles? Was the British capital to be a Babylon of unrestrained capitalism, American-style; a mechanistic machine for living, Soviet-style; or a global Imperial capital? London was the place where all these alternative visions jostled for space with traditional ideas about Englishness and Britishness. The book discusses these debates in terms of how they were made physical through London?s streets and buildings, the clothes, material goods and creative works produced, worn and used by Londoners. It shows London emerging from the decade as a city for the modern world, British-style, newly-democratized, a unique mix of international modernism and distinctly post-modern diversity, irony and pragmatism.

Author Biography

Cathy Ross is head of the department of Later London History at the Museum of London.

Table of Contents

This Syncopated Civilization

Visions of America

Visions of Russia

Visions of Britain

Visions of England

London; the Diverse City

London, the Disorderly City

London, the Efficient City

Appendices: 30 key London Buildings from the 1920s

10 Key Pieces of the 1920s Public Sculpture

This Syncopated Civilization Visions of America Visions of Russia Visions of Britain Visions of England London

The Diverse City London, the Disorderly City London

The Efficient City Appendices: 30 key London Buildings from the 1920

10 Key Pieces of the 1920s Public Sculpture

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