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

Provides fresh insight into the decade's most important events, people, and issues.

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.

Introduces the major cultural and intellectual trends of the decade by introducing and assessing the development of the primary cultural forms: namely, Fiction, Poetry and Drama, Music and Performance, Film and Radio, and Visual Art and Design. A fifth chapter focuses on the unprecedented rise in the 1920s of Leisure and Consumption.

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 period from 1913 to 1933 is not often seen as a coherent entity in the history of the United States. It is more often viewed in terms of two distinct periods with the pre-war era of political engagement, idealism, and reform known as “progressivism” separated by World War I from the materialism, conservatism and disengagement of the “prosperous” 1920s. To many postwar observers and later historians, the entry of the United States into the European conflict in 1917 marked not just a dramatic departure in foreign relations, but also the end of an era of reform. This second edition of Historical Dictionary from the Great War to the Great Depression covers the history of this period through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about a vital period in U.S. history.

This ten-volume encyclopedia explores the social history of 20th-century America in rich, authoritative detail, decade by decade, through the eyes of its everyday citizens. Social History of the United States is a cornerstone reference that tells the story of 20th-century America, examining the interplay of policies, events, and everyday life in each decade of the 1900s with unmatched authority, clarity, and insight. Spanning ten volumes and featuring the work of some of the foremost social historians working today, Social History of the United States bridges the gap between 20th-century history as it played out on the grand stage and history as it affected—and was affected by—citizens at the grassroots level. Covering each decade in a separate volume, this exhaustive work draws on the most compelling scholarship to identify important themes and institutions, explore daily life and working conditions across the economic spectrum, and examine all aspects of the American experience from a citizen's-eye view. Casting the spotlight on those whom history often leaves in the dark, Social History of the United States is an essential addition to any library collection.