Ronald Berman is a professor emeritus of English literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of many books, including Fitzgerald-Wilson-Hemingway: Language and Experience; Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties; and The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s World of Ideas.

What may seem otherwise surprising in a book about the meeting of Fitzgerald and sociology is this books reverence for the literary element. Any of the "new" discoveries always aims at proving that Fitzgerald used fiction as a literary medium before he used it as a social one. In perhaps the most subversive move of all, American Scene uses historicism against itself proudly to affirm the role of the novelistic imagination for a new age and a new American scene." - F. Scott Fitzgerald Review“Berman has written extensively on Fitzgerald . . . so the reader should not be fooled by the slenderness of the present volume. Instead, one should recognize and appreciate the intensity of Berman’s focus: the rapidity with which culture can change in little more than a decade, especially when spurred by ideas like social Darwinism, Freudianism, and Marxism. Fitzgerald, though sharply aware of these movements, was rarely committed to any of these ideologies, sometimes to the annoyance of his mentors and supporters. . . . Highly recommended.” - CHOICE

Ronald Berman is a professor emeritus of English literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of many books, including Fitzgerald-Wilson-Hemingway: Language and Experience; Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties; and The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s World of Ideas.

What may seem otherwise surprising in a book about the meeting of Fitzgerald and sociology is this books reverence for the literary element. Any of the "new" discoveries always aims at proving that Fitzgerald used fiction as a literary medium before he used it as a social one. In perhaps the most subversive move of all, American Scene uses historicism against itself proudly to affirm the role of the novelistic imagination for a new age and a new American scene." - F. Scott Fitzgerald Review“Berman has written extensively on Fitzgerald . . . so the reader should not be fooled by the slenderness of the present volume. Instead, one should recognize and appreciate the intensity of Berman’s focus: the rapidity with which culture can change in little more than a decade, especially when spurred by ideas like social Darwinism, Freudianism, and Marxism. Fitzgerald, though sharply aware of these movements, was rarely committed to any of these ideologies, sometimes to the annoyance of his mentors and supporters. . . . Highly recommended.” - CHOICE

Ronald Berman is a professor emeritus of English literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of many books, including Fitzgerald-Wilson-Hemingway: Language and Experience; Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties; and The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s World of Ideas.

What may seem otherwise surprising in a book about the meeting of Fitzgerald and sociology is this books reverence for the literary element. Any of the "new" discoveries always aims at proving that Fitzgerald used fiction as a literary medium before he used it as a social one. In perhaps the most subversive move of all, American Scene uses historicism against itself proudly to affirm the role of the novelistic imagination for a new age and a new American scene." - F. Scott Fitzgerald Review“Berman has written extensively on Fitzgerald . . . so the reader should not be fooled by the slenderness of the present volume. Instead, one should recognize and appreciate the intensity of Berman’s focus: the rapidity with which culture can change in little more than a decade, especially when spurred by ideas like social Darwinism, Freudianism, and Marxism. Fitzgerald, though sharply aware of these movements, was rarely committed to any of these ideologies, sometimes to the annoyance of his mentors and supporters. . . . Highly recommended.” - CHOICE