Intended as a reference source for American social history, this volume discusses the people, events and ideas of the period 1920-1929. After an introductory overview and chronology, subject chapters follow with subject-specific timelines and alphabetically arranged entries.

The "Roaring Twenties" was a roaring decade indeed. The passage of the Volstead Act prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol and spawned a black market network of smuggling and speakeasies. Gangsters like Al Capone captured the public's imagination. Fashionable, fun-loving women wore short skirts and even shorter hair. They, and a growing number of the public, danced to jazz music, and the popular Cotton Club in Chicago was open to both African Americans and whites. Business was booming in many industries and, for the first time, people were buying on credit. Speculation in the stock market was at an all-time high as a "get rich quick" mentality took hold, but the artificially inflated bubble burst on October 24, 1929. The stock market crash closed out the 1920s with a bang. The following documents are just a sampling of the offerings available in this volume: New York Dada first and only issue of Dadaist magazine by Man RayMaidenform Brassiere Patent drawings and documentation, text facsimileAlfred E. Smith's speech on Religious BigotryReports and memos by J. Edgar Hoover, both as a special agent and Justice Department Attorney, on the activities of black nationalist Marcus Garvey "The Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame football: article by Grantland Rice and photograph of the players"Far From Well," book review by author and poet Dorothy Parker"Plan-Isometric and Elevation of a Minimum Dymaxion home and patent applicat by R. Buckminster FullerHandbook for Guardians of Camp Fire Girls, 1924"Open Letter to the Pullman Company," by A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping CarPortersJournal entry of May 5, 1926, by Robert Goddard documenting the launch of the first liquid-fuel rocket Daily Worker editorial cartoons covering the trial, sentencing, and execution of Sacco and VanzettiPhotograph of American Indian Chiefs Frank Seelatse and Jimmy Noah SaluskinThe Care and Feeding of Children, a guidebook for new parents

Intended as a reference source for American social history, this volume discusses the people, events and ideas of the 1940s. After an introductory overview and chronology, subject chapters follow with subject-specific timelines and alphabetically arranged entries.

A look at American civilization by decade covers history, politics, law, economics, culture, sports, social trends, and important people.

Details the Roaring Twenties in American history discussing presidents, the Eighteenth Amendment, Nineteenth Amendment, expatriate writers, the Ku Klux Klan, the Harlem Renaissance, restricted immigration, the National Football League and more.

"Impressively detailed. . . . An authoritative and epic overview."--Publishers Weekly