How did the specific cultural and social conditions of the post-World War I era shape the literary output of the writers known as the Lost Generation? Malcolm Cowley, a prominent literary critic and participant in the era, utilizes his personal observations and historical analysis to examine the lives and works of figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Hart Crane. He argues that these writers were defined by their shared experiences of displacement and their collective reaction to the shifting values of American society during the 1920s.

Critics and scholars regard this work as a significant primary source for understanding the social context of 1920s American literature. Readers often note that the prose is accessible yet carries the weight of an insider's perspective on a pivotal literary movement.