What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century

by Henry Allen

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375420630
• ISBN13: 9780375420634
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

It Felt Good: Reading What It Felt Like...

Always intrigued to read a book written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, I must admit that on first site I was a bit skeptical of What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century's trim appearance. But on an overcast winter afternoon in San Francisco I picked up the book and began to read. I consciously remember sitting on the couch reading the first few pages...Next thing... I was arguing with my wife, a different wife - country club type, 1940. I felt a tapping on my shoulder and snapping back to 2001, my wife -- my real wife, was hovering above me with a knowing grin - dinner was ready. It had been an hour since I started reading and it was then that I realized Henry Allen had done something wonderful with this book.If you are looking for the type of history book that spews facts at you in a traditional manner, an objective and dry write-up, then this isn't the book for you. However, if you are looking for a 130-page piece of social-historical prose, reading more like a poem than a textbook then you have found the right book. Henry Allen manages to introduce (if you're as young as I am) or remind you (if you're my grandparent's age), of what society was like in each of the decades comprising the 20th century. The book prefers to take a blanket approach to the decades by presenting social scenarios involving fictional characters and situations relating to the times. We can take comfort under these blankets because the situations that Mr. Allen describes are ones with which we can all relate. While we identify with each fictional scenario and character, the book weaves historical threads of political, economic, and artistic events into the blanket to help explain why our characters have been placed in their current situations. Written in an up-beat prose style you float from page to page, decade to decade, soaking up facts and threads, and not even realizing it until you've been called for dinner. As an Art Historian I can attest to the fluency and accuracy with which Mr. Allen addresses his artistic references. This makes me believe that somehow he's managed to squeeze 1000 pages worth of textbook history into 130 pages of prose. If you're anything like me, you've read myriad American History books during your education -- and come test time it was a race to see if you could memorize the facts in time to pass (which didn't always happen). But I will tell you this -- if Henry Allen had been our teacher, we all would all have received A's -- because you don't need to memorize what happened in each decade when you KNOW what it felt like.

What It Felt Like

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.

The Way We Were

Henry Allen has given his readers a whirlwind tour of the 20th Century in a little gem of a book. For convenience he divides the century into ten year periods even though he recognizes that "ages don't match decades." Its amazing how Allen is able to capture the nuances of each time frame in simple easy to read brilliantly effective language. Using a snippet of conversation here, a quick word picture there, or the mention of a major or minor event of the age somewhere else, he pulls the reader so smoothly into the narrative that one actually gets the impression that he or she has a sense of what it actually felt like to be living in America back then. Try it for yourself. Pick out your own personal frame of reference and read through the text. You'll be surprised and delighted at how many memories can be evoked with so few words.What a masterful book! This book would be a great gift for your children, your grandchildren, or yourself. I'm pretty sure my copy will be worn and dog-eared before long. I imagine I'll buy another copy as a gift for myself.

Henry Allen Really Knows What It Felt Like!

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 ....

ALLEN KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE

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.