{"product_id":"the-big-change-america-transforms-itself-190050","title":"The Big Change: America Transforms Itself  1900-50","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrederick 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 Allens 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.Allens 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 Americas 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. Allens 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 ONeill 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44985083265077,"sku":"ByrdShop_1560006390","price":28.93,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781560006398.jpg?v=1770845747","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-big-change-america-transforms-itself-190050","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}