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Flappers
Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation | Judith Mackrell
19 posts | 12 read | 20 to read
By the 1920s, women were on the verge of something huge. Jazz, racy fashions, eyebrowraising new attitudes about art and sexall of this pointed to a sleek, modern world, one that could shake off the grimness of the Great War and stride into the future in one deft, stylized gesture. The women who defined this the Jazz AgeJosephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Tamara de Lempickawould presage the sexual revolution by nearly half a century and would shape the role of women for generations to come. In Flappers, the acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell renders these women with all the color that marked their lives and their era. Both sensuous and sympathetic, her admiring biography lays bare the private lives of her heroines, filling in the bold contours. These women came from vastly different backgrounds, but all ended up passing through Paris, the mecca of the avant-garde. Before she was the toast of Parisian society, Josephine Baker was a poor black girl from the slums of Saint Louis. Tamara de Lempicka fled the Russian Revolution only to struggle to scrape together a life for herself and her family. A committed painter, her portraits were indicative of the age's art deco sensibility and sexual daring. The Brits in the groupNancy Cunard and Diana Cooper came from pinkie-raising aristocratic families but soon descended into the salacious delights of the vanguard. Tallulah Bankhead and Zelda Fitzgerald were two Alabama girls driven across the Atlantic by a thirst for adventure and artistic validation. But beneath the flamboyance and excess of the Roaring Twenties lay age-old prejudices about gender, race, and sexuality. These flappers weren't just dancing and carousing; they were fighting for recognition and dignity in a male-dominated world. They were more than mere lovers or muses to the modernist mastersin their pursuit of fame and intense experience, we see a generation of women taking bold steps toward something burgeoning, undefined, maybe dangerous: a New Woman.
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Caroline2
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Hoping for plenty of #twistandshout from this book. 😁 Has anyone read it? I‘ve had it for yearssss but I‘ve still not read it yet?! 🙄 is it any good? #beatlemaynia

Cathythoughts I havnt read. But I thought The 19th Wife was really good 👍🏻 6y
Caroline2 @Cathythoughts good to know! I‘ve not read that one yet either. 😆 6y
Lcsmcat What @Cathythoughts said. Plus both Atwoods I See are good, and the Lisa See Book too. 6y
See All 9 Comments
squirrelbrain I have The Russian Tattoo 😁 - we shall have to attempt another #looseygooseybuddyread sometime! 🤣 6y
Eggs 💗🤗🎶👏🏻💗 6y
Caroline2 @squirrelbrain yes!!! 😆 I am on holiday for the next couple of wks but let‘s sort this out when I get back! 😉 👍🏻 6y
squirrelbrain yay! Have a fab time - where are you going? I sent you #bookmail yesterday so that‘s something to look forward to when you get back...😁 6y
Nute I haven‘t read Flappers, but Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a favorite book of mine. The 19th Wife was very good as well. You have a lot of good books to choose from.🙂 6y
Caroline2 @squirrelbrain Yayyy! 😀 thank you! That is something nice to look forward to. 👍🏻 6y
82 likes9 comments
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OutsmartYourShelf
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Panpan

I was looking forward to reading this one about the Roaring Twenties - one of the most interesting periods of the twentieth century. The six women featured were fascinating subjects, unfortunately the book itself was rather boring. Rating: 2 ⭐️

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Emilymdxn
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Pickpick

Exactly the kind of history book I love! I recommend SO much for anyone interested in the 20s. Academic but readable, emotional, and very well structured. I loved learning more about Zelda Fitzgerald (who I must read more about now), Josephine Baker and Tallulah Bankhead, and the other women I hadn‘t heard of before were just as interesting. I often find history very dry but this was so good.

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wonga
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happy #socksunday! my current read (the tagged book) didn‘t make the picture but i‘m loving it. also loving my let it snow socks from @Wife So soft! they are worn sparingly as i want them to last forever 💕

Liatrek Love #socksunday ❤️ I glad to hear I‘m not the only that is careful not wear out a perfect set of cozy socks :-) 7y
BookMaven407 💙those socks! 7y
Wife I‘m glad you like them. Such a lovely background of books 😍. I love ❤️ the postcard you sent...a nice surprise! 7y
63 likes3 comments
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SaraRosett
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Research! Interesting that this book traces the emergence of #flappers from the early 1910s. I'd always thought flappers didn't come into being until the 1920s. #historical #research

Lesliereads Same here! 8y
JazzFeathers The Twenties were their times, but the 'movement'actually started with their mothers. Not the attitude, but certainly the thinking ^_^ 8y
SaraRosett @JazzFeathers: I didn't realize. I learn something every day. :) 8y
17 likes4 stack adds3 comments
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OrangeMooseReads
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📚📦 IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

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GuninActOne
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I'm in love and headed down a serious nonfiction rabbit hole with this. Must read all about the Fitzgeralds and of course reread Gatsby.

5 likes2 stack adds
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JenBrown
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My late birthday present from myself (among a few other books). I'm excited to read about the lives of 6 amazing women!

3 likes1 stack add