Reading 1922

This engaging study returns to a truly remarkable year, the year in which both Ulysses and The Waste Land were published, in which The Great Gatsby was set, and during which the Fascisti took over in Italy, the Irish Free State was born, the Harlem Renaissance reached its peak, Charlie Chaplin's popularity crested, and King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered. In short, the year which not only in hindsight became the primal scene of literarymodernism but which served as the cradle for a host of major political and aesthetic transformations resonating around the globe. In his previous study, the acclaimed Dialect of Modernism (OUP, 1994), Michael North looked at the racial and linguistic struggles over the English language which gave birth to the many strains of modernism. Here, he expands his vision to encompass the global stage, and tells the story of how books changed the future of the world as we know it in one unforgettable year.

Enlightening ... Making innovative use of material from such (apparently) diverse sources as anthropology, linguistics, travel literature and cinema, North's brisk but densely researched book moves engagingly around its central thesis: that later critics have slanted the reception history of modernism to fit into their own ideas of what it represented., Well documented, nicely illustrated, and written in up-to-the-minute clinical language, this book is a smooth sail., It is nevertheless surprising ... just how much ground [North] is able to cover (and cover well) in under three hundred pages. The book opens with an excellent analysis of the significance of translation ... We could do worse than staving off the sleep of reason by immersing ourselves in Michael North's excellent—because critical—translation of the twentieth century.

About the Author: Professor of English at UCLA, Michael North is the author of four books, including The Dialect of Modernism: Race, Language, and Twentieth-Century Literature (OUP 1994). He has written and lectured widely on many aspects of modern culture, including literature, politics, and the arts.