Roaring Twenties Book Report

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Kawan Jefferies April 26, 2011 US History II Considered by many American historians as the “Roaring Twenties,” the decade of 1919-1929 was that and so much more. The phrase was coined to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural vigor. Undeniably this decade was a period of extraordinary change in America, but it also brought great turbulence. There was a segment of the country that enjoyed frivolous good times and prosperity. This segment was the urban business districts that benevolently fed off of the new beginnings of materialistic consumerism. Social standards were changing, the idea of forever peace had overcome a previously war torn planet, and all of the domestic reforms of the Progressive Era helped usher in one of the most celebrated decades in American history. However extravagant, rural America didn’t always agree with the new Metropolitan ideas. In Ronald Allen Goldberg’s book, “America in the Twenties,” he carefully detailed what really took place during this novel and stimulating time period. America after World War I was in for a drastic make over. America had finally become a world power on par with the superior European nations of the time period. As a matter of fact, once Armistice was reached in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson spent more time overseas perfecting the treaty of Versailles that he merely neglected the domestic issues he once profoundly supported. The nation was in a daze. Wilson’s neglect and severe health concerns after the end of the war led to substantial problems that emerged in foreign affairs, race relations, demobilization, prohibition, and an Anti-Immigrant movement that led to an extreme fear of Communism in the states. In fact, 1919 was the most strike-filled year in United States history. This was coupled with the plight of the Red Scare, which weakened unions, strengthen business, escalated racial
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