1920s

Growth and excess marked the decade known as the Roaring Twenties (1920–1929). It was a time when people chased after the American Dream and society embraced bold and new things. But underneath this glamorous exterior were struggles and inequalities. Lines were frequently drawn between the young and the old, the established and the rebellious, the well-mannered and the hedonistic, the citizens and the outsiders.

The decade following the World War I (1914–1918) gave birth to new political movements that later challenged American democracy—communism and fascism. Political changes in the United States were no less extreme. The dawn of the 1920s laid the foundations for the spirit of rebellion and excess that defined the decade.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S....