With 1919, the second volume of his U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos continues hi
s "vigorous and sweeping panorama of twentieth-century America" (Forum), lauded
on publication of the first volume not only for its scope, but also for its grou
ndbreaking style. Again, employing a host of experimental devices that would ins
pire a whole new generation of writers to follow, Dos Passos captures the many t
extures, flavors, and background noises of modern life with a cinematic touch an
d unparalleled nerve.
1919 opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos
Passos's characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into t
he snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl,
a young poet, a radical Jew, and we glimpse Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt,
and the Unknown Soldier.
