ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the four women’s magazines at the heart of this book and explores their diverse responses to modernity. It provides an account of the publication history, format, typical content, and expected audience of Vogue, Eve, Good Housekeeping, and Harper’s Bazaar during 1918–39 (with British Vogue also considered from its 1916 launch here) and close analysis of a single issue of each magazine. It offers close reading of the magazines’ visual and textual elements and interactions between their editorial, feature, and commercial material. It pays attention to the multiple ways in which these magazines mediated the modern, particularly in relation to women’s experience, their consumption, dress, and private and public roles. This chapter will be helpful to anyone seeking an introduction to these magazines in the interwar years.
