{"product_id":"2940013693159","title":"Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's","description":"If time were suddenly to turn back to the earliest days of the\u003cbr\u003ePostwar Decade, and you were to look about you, what would seem\u003cbr\u003estrange to you? since 1919 the circumstances of American life have\u003cbr\u003ebeen transformed--yes, but exactly how?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet us refresh our memories by following a moderately well-to-do\u003cbr\u003eyoung couple of Cleveland or Boston or Seattle or Baltimore--it\u003cbr\u003ehardly matters which--through the routine of an ordinary day in\u003cbr\u003eMay, 1919.  (I select that particular date, six months after the\u003cbr\u003eArmistice of 1918, because by then the United States had largely\u003cbr\u003esucceeded in turning from the ways of war to those of peace, yet\u003cbr\u003ethe profound alterations wrought by the Post-war Decade had hardly\u003cbr\u003ebegun to take place.)  There is no better way of suggesting what\u003cbr\u003ethe passage of a few years has done to change you and me and the\u003cbr\u003eenvironment in which we live.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the appearance of Mr. Smith as he comes to the breakfast table\u003cbr\u003eon this May morning in 1919, you would hardly know that you are not\u003cbr\u003ein the nineteen-thirties (though you might, perhaps, be struck by\u003cbr\u003ethe narrowness of his trousers).  The movement of men's fashions is\u003cbr\u003eglacial.  It is different, however, with Mrs. Smith.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe comes to breakfast in a suit, the skirt of which--rather tight\u003cbr\u003eat the ankles--hangs just six inches from the ground.  She has read\u003cbr\u003ein Vogue the alarming news that skirts may become even shorter, and\u003cbr\u003ethat \"not since the days of the Bourbons has the woman of fashion\u003cbr\u003ebeen visible so far above the ankle\"; but six inches is still the\u003cbr\u003eorthodox clearance.  She wears low shoes now, for spring has come;\u003cbr\u003ebut all last winter she protected her ankles either with spats or\u003cbr\u003ewith high laced \"walking-boots,\" or with high patent-leather shoes\u003cbr\u003ewith contrasting buckskin tops.  Her stockings are black (or tan,\u003cbr\u003eperhaps, if she wears tan shoes); the idea of flesh-colored\u003cbr\u003estockings would appall her.  A few minutes ago Mrs. Smith was\u003cbr\u003esurrounding herself with an \"envelope chemise\" and a petticoat; and\u003cbr\u003efrom the thick ruffles on her undergarments it was apparent that\u003cbr\u003eshe was not disposed to make herself more boyish in form than ample\u003cbr\u003enature intended.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Smith may use powder, but she probably draws the line at\u003cbr\u003epaint.  Although the use of cosmetics is no longer, in 1919,\u003cbr\u003econsidered prima facie evidence of a scarlet career, and\u003cbr\u003esophisticated young girls have already begun to apply them with\u003cbr\u003esome bravado, most well-brought-up women still frown upon rouge.\u003cbr\u003eThe beauty-parlor industry is in its infancy; there are a dozen\u003cbr\u003ehair dressing parlors for every beauty parlor, and Mrs. Smith has\u003cbr\u003enever heard of such dark arts as that of face-lifting.  When she\u003cbr\u003eputs on her hat to go shopping she will add a veil pinned neatly\u003cbr\u003etogether behind her head.  In the shops she will perhaps buy a\u003cbr\u003ebathing-suit for use in the summer; it will consist of an outer\u003cbr\u003etunic of silk or cretonne over a tight knitted undergarment--worn,\u003cbr\u003eof course, with long stockings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer hair is long, and the idea of a woman ever frequenting a barber\u003cbr\u003eshop would never occur to her.  If you have forgotten what the\u003cbr\u003egeneral public thought of short hair in those days, listen to the\u003cbr\u003eremark of the manager of the Palm Garden in New York when reporters\u003cbr\u003easked him, one night in November, 1918, how he happened to rent his\u003cbr\u003ehall for a pro-Bolshevist meeting which had led to a riot.\u003cbr\u003eExplaining that a well-dressed woman had come in a fine automobile\u003cbr\u003eto make arrangements for the use of the auditorium, he added, \"Had\u003cbr\u003ewe noticed then, as we do now, that she had short hair, we would\u003cbr\u003ehave refused to rent the hall.\"  In Mrs. Smith's mind, as in that\u003cbr\u003eof the manager of the Palm Garden, short-haired women, like long-\u003cbr\u003ehaired men, are associated with radicalism, if not with free love.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083151720688,"sku":"2940013693159","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013693159_p0.jpg?v=1763584596","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013693159","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}