The Big Change

Frederick Lewis Allen, a pioneer of social history best known for Only Yesterday, set out in his last and most ambitious book to explain how American life changed between 1900 and 1950. His theme is that the promise of democracy was in large part fulfilled, and he defends the economic system against critics who saw the country weakened by affluence and conformity. The book has three parts. The Old Order describes the plutocracy at the turn of the century, with government largely serving business and a wide gap between rich and poor. The Momentum of Change covers mass production, the automobile, the Depression, big government and the Second World War. The New America gives a hopeful view of postwar culture.

Morgan Housel included it among 23 books that changed his life, saying its account of how American life changed from 1900 to 1950 drew him to the social and cultural side of economic growth.