ABSTRACT
Century's Ebb is written in the mixture of modes that Dos Passos originated in his bold trilogy U.S.A. (1930–38), then modified in each of his subsequent works. Two of these are straight novels—Most Likely to Succeed (1954) and The Great Days (1958)—but the others include factual reporting, editorials, obituaries and prose poems in various dosages. Each book presents a particular phase or period of American life; for example, The GrandDesign (1949) deals with government agencies during World War II. At some time in the 1950's, Dos Passos decided that the right name for the series was Contemporary Chronicles,and he rearranged it in chronological order of subject matter. Thus, Chosen Country(1951), an autobiographical romance about the Pignatelli (read ‘Dos Passos’) family, became the first chronicle, since it opens in the years before the Civil War. Midcentury(1961) was to be the 12th chronicle in order of subject matter, and in order of writing as well.
