Only Yesterday, Since Yesterday, and The Lords of Creation: Three Popular Histories of 20th-Century America

About this book

Three acclaimed chronicles of American life from a New York Times–bestselling author with a “style that is verve itself” (The New York Times). In these three popular histories of America—collectively ranging from the turn of the century through the 1930s—Frederick Lewis Allen confirms his reputation as one of the most influential journalists of the twentieth century and a “diligent and perceptive reporter” (Forbes). Only Yesterday: Allen’s bestselling account of the Roaring Twenties begins at the end of World War I and continues through Prohibition, the Big Red Scare, and the stock market crash of 1929. Originally published in 1931, the definitive account of twentieth-century America combines the immediacy of firsthand experience with clear-cut analysis. This iconic history sold over half a million copies in its first year of publication, reaching commercial and critical success unheard of during the Depression. Since Yesterday: Allen’s bestselling follow-up to Only Yesterday begins with America’s plunge into the Great Depression. With wit and empathy, Allen chronicles the 1930s from the Lindbergh kidnapping to the New Deal, from bank closures and devastating dust storms to the rise of Benny Goodman and our mass escape to the movies. The Lords of Creation: Allen’s history of American finance from the Reconstruction Era to the start of the Great Depression is a fascinating story of bankers, railroad tycoons, steel magnates, and robber barons. From the unprecedented corporate expansion that followed the Civil War, Allen traces a path of innovation and exploitation that put America’s fortunes in the hands of the Rockefellers, Fords, Vanderbilts, and other wealthy industrialists who set the stage for the most devastating financial collapse in history.