After the devastations of World War I, the social and cultural milieu of the 1920s seemed to offer an autonomy and independence to women never before seen. Mackrell (
Bloomsbury Ballerina) develops this theme by focusing on six women: British socialites Diana Cooper and Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, actress Tallulah Bankhead, entertainer Josephine Baker, and Russian painter Tamara de Lempicka. Entertaining and well researched, the six biographical threads are skillfully interwoven and cumulatively provide an illuminating portrait of the 1920s. Reader Julia Franklin has a rich, slightly arch British voice that suits the content very well, although she falters somewhat with the Southern accents required in the Bankhead and Fitzgerald sections.
VERDICT Nevertheless, highly recommended for history and women's studies collections.
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