The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s

The 1920s Jazz Age, an era of great social and artistic change in America, also heralded a new design sensibility that was applied to all manner of built, manufactured, and crafted goods, from hulking skyscrapers to intricate jewelry. As the freedom and exuberance of jazz music flowed from the United States to Europe, modernism in design flowed back to the States. This jazz metaphor and international exchange provide the premise of a new exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian's design museum, of which this book is the catalog. As such, it presents a collection of topical essays instead of a single continuous narrative. Coauthors Harrison (Cleveland Museum of Art), Sarah D. Coffin, and Emily Orr (Cooper Hewitt) delve into the surprising diversity of style in the era, which art deco dominates. Extensively illustrated by contemporary and period photographs, the wide-ranging text mostly covers American consumption of the pinnacles of design in the era, primarily luxury goods ranging from fine art to automobiles, designer clothing, and interior décor.