Lost Girls

Reviews / Votes

To read Linda Simon's social and literary history of flappers is to feel . . . the relief of the loosening of corsets, the excitement of the shimmy and tango in the dance hall, the thrill of smoking, the bliss of escape from detested chaperoning rules and the swooning effect of watching Rudolph Valentino on the silent screen * The Times * A fresh, unique view of the iconic flapper. . . . Simon digs beneath stereotype to provide an illuminating cultural study. . . . A fascinating history of thirty years of trailblazing women who "invented a new image and identity . . . in a culture where they were continually warned about the real losses . . . that they might suffer if they acted upon their secret needs and desires." * Kirkus Reviews * Social anxieties have a way of coalescing around young women's bodies, Linda Simon demonstrates in Lost Girls, her riveting, deeply-researched counter-history of the flapper. Behind the beads, the bob, the fringe, and the Charleston, there is a much darker story to be told. * Lauren Elkin, author of Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London * Lost Girls finds an irresistible history of many girls. They longed to be modern, New Women, and in the Jazz Age, transgressive flappers. They wanted to dance, go to the movies, dress freely, work, be independent, and even vote. Arrayed against them were parents, scientists, politicians, and an imprisoning cult of motherhood. Linda Simon, with verve and wit and eloquence, shows us their battles, scars, and victories - a vibrant legacy for the 21st century. * Catharine R. Stimpson, University Professor, New York University * Rich in surprise connections and creepy quotes, Lost Girls illuminates a modernist aspiration to blur gender and age that was simultaneously abetted and repressed by a deeply confused society. * TLS * [a] deftly written and meticulously researched cultural and experiential history * History Today * "The iconic, mythic, post-war flapper," writes Simon in her involving social history of the phenomenon, "emerged from a culture obsessed with the adolescent girl: as a problem, a temptation and finally, in the 1920s and beyond, an aspiration." . . . She has come up with a great deal of fascinating information and her research is impressive. * Wall Street Journal * Linda Simon's new book of flappers seeks to understand their history. She shows that, though often caricatured in the media as frivolous, vain girls, flappers were more likely to be ambitious, modern young women who dreaded that they would end up like their mothers. They wanted the vote, a well-paid and fulfilling job, and sex. Much more sex. Echoing the flappers' joy and exuberance, Simon's history positively sizzles on the page. It is a story of booze, dance and danger. * BBC History Magazine * [a] fascinating study of the phenomenon known as the flapper. * 'History Books of the Year', Daily Mail * We think of flappers as flirty, rebellious young women given to snappy one-liners, short dresses, and flat chests. We rarely give credit to these bright young things as the women who shed their mother's Victorian corsetry and prudish notions about sex and scotch. Simon's engaging history explores this seminal postwar moment, exploring the evolution of these radical young girls (Simon calls them "girls" in a good way) from "a problem to a temptation, and finally, in the 1920s and beyond, to an aspiration." * Toronto Star * Simon's new book, Lost Girls, is not about this visceral fantasy of loose girls in drop waists. Instead, it's a careful, sometimes gritty look at exactly how British and American women rose from a Victorian world of corsets and social constraints to one in which they could at least imagine they wielded as much power as men . . . It's clear she is a gifted researcher, and each piece of information she provides seems to bloom with nuance and careful understanding of the time, place, and people she writes about. * Washington Independent Review of Books * Using sources from popular culture and from people of the time, Simon asserts that the image of the flapper did not appear out of a single historical moment but rather was invented over the decades. The flapper did not limit its impact to fashion and women's attitudes, but also intersected with debates about race, immigration, politics, and the like. Simon's book is an excellent and very accessible narrative on the flapper and will be of interest to anyone fascinated with gender and the history of the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century. * New Books Network *