Crossroads: 1913

A distinguished historian's fascinating account of a fateful year in American history.

Nineteen thirteen was the bridge year of the twentieth century. It foreshadowed the end of what was familiar and comfortable for many Americans, and introduced a new era.

This almost forgotten past bears as little resemblance to the present day as the Model-T Ford does to the Thunderbird. And yet the seeds of the cold war and space age had begun to germinate even then.

From the vantage point of a fifty-year perspective, Paul M. Angle invokes the nostalgia of the old and pinpoints the beginnings of the new. Not only in national and international affairs but in the day-to-day events of this crucial year, he traces America's emergence from the placid pace of a horse-and-buggy existence. He explores every aspect of the American complexion: art, sports, theater, music, writing, humor transportation, plus the recording of every significant occurrence of national life.

The whole complex of existence was bobbling in ferment. Paul M. Angle documents it all, blending the historian's insight with a lively sense of drama.

The result is an absorbing account of America at the crossroads.