• '

  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

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  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

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  [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

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  [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

• '

  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 Flâneuse: 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

Introduction

1 Angelfish

2 Daughters Revolt

3 The Happy Boy

4 Private Lives

5 Bodies in Motion

6 A Culture of Their Own

7 Votes for Flappers

8 The Age of the Girl

9 The Flapper Paramount

References

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Photo Acknowledgements

Index

Linda Simon is Professor Emerita of English at Skidmore College, New York. Her many books include Coco Chanel (Reaktion, 2011) and The Greatest Shows on Earth: A History of the Circus (Reaktion, 2014).