Flappers

"A juicy, energetic exploration of six dazzling iconoclasts who all flared to fame in the Roaring '20s." — Los Angeles Times "Mackrell's book bubbles with the giddy energy of the era, filled with parties, affairs, cocktails, and cocaine—and captures its inevitable dissolution as well." — The Boston Globe By the 1920s, women were on the verge of something huge. Jazz, racy fashions, eyebrow-raising new attitudes about art and sex—all of this pointed to a sleek, modern world, one the could shake off the grimness of the Great War and stride into the future in one deft, stylized gesture. The women who defined this age—Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Diane Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Tamara de Lempicka—would presage the sexual revolution by nearly half a century and would shape the role of women for generations to come. "Mackrell portrays, with vivid facts, sexual candor, and incisive analysis, six intrepid, stylish, headline-grabbing women artists who exemplify the flapper revolution. . . . Spectacularly dramatic and thought-provoking." — Booklist (starred review) "[Mackrell's] writing is bright and nimble, but she's also astute enough to delve beyond the flash and dazzle, the public illusions cast to hide private insecurity, pain and frustration." — The New York Times Book Review