Words at Work in Vanity Fair - Language Shifts in Crucial Times, 1914–1930

Noted critic Martha Banta draws on essays in Vanity Fair written by esteemed journalists, literary figures, and cultural critics between The Great War and The Crash. These major writers recognized the potency of vocabularies to affect politics, the arts, relations between nations, and social exchange, whether through the audacious invention of new words or the assault on formerly untested terms. Words at Work in Vanity Fair takes a head-on look at the ways major cultural and historical events in the United States and Britain led to the invention of new words to express the rampant changes within society.