Frederick Lewis Allen was one of the pioneers in social history.
Best known as the author of Only Yesterday, Allen originated a
model of what is sometimes called instant history, the
reconstruction of past eras through vivid commentary on the news,
fashions, customs, and artifacts that altered the pace and forms of
American life. The Big Change was Allen's last and most ambitious
book. In it he attempted to chart and explain the progressive
evolution of American life over half a century. Written at a time
of unprecedented optimism and prosperity, The Big Change defines a
transformative moment in American history and provides an implicit
and illuminating perspective on what has taken place in the second
half of the twentieth century.Allen's theme is the realization, in
large measure, of the promise of democracy. As against the strain
of social criticism that saw America as enfeebled by affluence and
conformity, Allen wrote in praise of an economic system that had
ushered in a new age of well being for the American people. He
divides his inquiry into three major sections. The first, 'The Old
Order,' portrays the turn-of-the-century plutocracy in which the
federal government was largely subservient to business interests
and the gap between rich and poor portended a real possibility of
bloody rebellion. 'The Momentum of Change' graphically describes
the various forces that gradually transformed the country in the
new century: mass production, the automobile, the Great Depression
and the coming of big government, World War II and America's
emergence as a world power. Against this background, Allen shows
how the economic system was reformed without being ruined, and how
social gaps began to steadily close.The concluding section, 'The
New America,' is a hopeful assessment of postwar American culture.
Allen's analysis takes critical issue with many common perceptions,
both foreign and domestic, of American life and places remaining
social problems in careful perspective. As William O'Neill remarks
in his introduction to this new edition, The Big Change is both a
deep and wonderfully readable work of social commentary, a book
that gains rather than loses with the years.
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