Art and Architecture Collection > Art Deco Style: A Research Guide

Survey Histories

These titles provide overviews to the time period and offer social contexts for the development of the Art Deco style.

General Reference

France—Social History

New York—Social History

General Reference

Margulies, Phillip, ed. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. A chronological record with emphasis on United States history.

Streissguth, Thomas. The Roaring Twenties. New York: Facts on File, 2007. The format of this book allows quick access to factual data, and makes connections between U.S. and European developments.

France—Social History  

Scarlett, Frank and Townley, Marjorie.  Arts Decoratifs 1925: A Personal Recollection of the Paris Exhibition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.
A first-hand look at the Exposition that defined Art Deco. Appraises the various pavilions and designer displays, looks at national arts presentations, and gives a vivid sense of what was happening in Paris at that time.

Zeldin, Theodore.  France, 1848-1945. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973-77.
A solid survey of the social, economic, and political developments before, during, and after the Art Deco decades. Particularly good text on the effects of the first World War.

New York—Social History  

Cable, Mary. Top Drawer: American High Society from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties. New York: Atheneum, 1984.
A glimpse into the café society that spurred jazz and modern art. Upper class Americans imbibed the latest developments from Europe, including le style moderne.

Olson, James Stuart.  Historical Dictionary of the 1920s: from World War I to the New Deal, 1919-1933. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Another useful chronological examination of an important time period.

Wilson, Richard Guy, Dianne H. Pilgrim, Dickran Tashjian.The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941. New York: Brooklyn Museum in association with Abrams, 1986.
Explains the emergence of Machine Art in America, a sub-genre of the Art Deco style.