CROSSROADS: NINETEEN THIRTEEN

Fads in historical writing are as important, and no more or less predictable, than those which govern milady's wardrobe: the latest being, of course, the period from 1898 through World War I. The quality of the swelling flood of print about it has run from very fine to very shoddy, just as the individual contributions have been anywhere between extremely valuable and strictly-for-buffs. Mr. Angle's work, while pleasantly and professionally served up, clearly falls nearer the latter category than the former. Relying primarily upon the newspapers and magazines of the day, he has summed up the events which loomed largest in the consciousness of the American public during 1913. His contention is that this was a ""year of transition"", the end of one era and the beginning of another. Certainly, several turning points were reached, among them, Wilson's Tariff Bill, the Federal Reserve Act, and the income tax. In other areas the pressures for change were evident in such occurrences as the Armory art show, the Mexican crisis, serious strikes in the mining and textile industries, in the increasing outspokeness of the Women's Suffrage and Prohibition movements, and in all the furor over the slit skirt and the bunnyhug. So far as its ""you are there"" approach can go, this is a worthwhile, and fascinating, book. But as Mr. Angle freely admits, he has not attempted to robe for causes or to assess results. One cannot help sometimes wishing that he had; the trees are interesting enough, but an occasional glimpse of the forest right have made them more so.