The End of American Innocence: A Study of First Years of Our Own Time, 19121917 Book

A vivid account of the cultural politics of the era just prior to American entry into World War I. Henry May provide sensitive, balanced portraits of both the 'genteel' tradition inherited from the 19th century and the 'modern' enthusiasms that flowered during the 1920's. But May demonstrates that the legendary revolt against Victorianism was well under way before the war. May's focus is on the ideas displayed in literature and in political argumentation. His cast of characters includes William James, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Randolph Bourne, Charles W. Eliot, Theodore Roosevelt, Sherwood Anderson, Lincoln Steffens, Max Eastman, and Woodrow Wilson. The Columbia University Press Morningside edition includes a new Foreword by American intellectual historian David A. Hollinger that discusses recent scholarship on the issues addressed by May's book, and also inteprets The End of American Innocence as an important artifact of the American 1950's. May himself has written an Afterword responding to commentaries on his book.