Book Review — Last Call at the Hotel Imperial by Deborah Cohen
Deborah Cohen chronicles a massive treasure trove following historical journeys of Hemingrebels (“the Lost Generation”) across the first half of the Twentieth Century
As somebody who values intergenerational solidarity, I love reading about how Americans with adjacent birthyears would approach life in different ways. Along with my desire to learn more about members of “the Lost Generation” — whom I have dubbed as “Hemingrebels” — this read ended up giving me greater context for global history as a whole.
That’s why I have zero regrets about spending so much time and energy absorbing the content of Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War, which was published in 2022 by historian and humanities professor Deborah Anne Cohen.
It’s a hefty read. But by humanizing its historical subjects, Cohen puts in perspective major world events of the past century. She brilliantly illustrates how the Hemingrebel cohort pioneered a generational shift that would reverberate long after the midpoint of the Twentieth Century had passed.
