American Decades
"The Flapper"
Magazine article
By: Henry L. Mencken
Date: 1915
Source: Mencken, Henry L. "The Flapper." The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness, February 1915, 1–2.
About the Author: Henry L. (Louis) Mencken (1880–1956) was a longtime figure in American journalism and literary criticism. In addition, his biting social commentaries, which cover an extraordinarily wide variety of topics, are legendary.
Introduction
The term "Flapper" is associated in the American public's mind with the decade of the Roaring 20s along with bootleg gin, Al Capone, Charles Lindbergh, and the Stock Market craze. But the word "Flapper" comes from the pre-World War I period when humorist and social satirist Henry L. Mencken popularized the term (already in use in Britain) in a cheeky piece in The Smart Set: a Magazine of Cleverness, a New York-based, avant garde publication.
...[The entire page is 1274 words long]
1910's Lifestyles and Social Trends Primary Sources
- The Conflict of Colour
- The Woman Shopper: How to Make Her Buy
- The Social Evil in Chicago
- The Immigration Problem
- "On the Imitation of Man"
- America's Sex Hysteria
- "Making Men of Them"
- "The Next and Final Step"
- "The Flapper"
- "How We Manage"
- The Passing of the Great Race
- "Are the Movies a Menace to the Drama?"
- The Individual Delinquent
- Dark Side of Wartime Patriotism
- "The Negro Should Be a Party to the Commercial Conquest of the World"
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
