Product Description
America Has Fun: The Roaring Twenties is a Raintree title. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a little too thin
Even if this is a presentation for schoolchildren and other non-experts,
this is a very shallow book which contains nothing of the complexities of 1920s life. Watch "some like it hot" or "Once Upon A Time in America", and you will learn more about the era. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Eyewitness accounts of life in the 20s
Tom Streissguth's Roaring Twenties ... provides eyewitness accounts of life in the 20s, using diary entries, letters, speeches and newspaper accounts to illustrate historical events. Both common people and famous personalities reveal their personal experiences and insights. A highly recommended, basic pick for high school libraries and public libraries alike ... Read more

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The twenties and thirties witnessed dramatic changes in American life: increasing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval, and economic disaster.In this fascinating book, the prize-winning historian David Kyvig describes everyday life in these decades, when automobiles and home electricity became commonplace, when radio and the movies became broadly popular. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

History might repeat itself
Combined with the Forgotten Man this is book offers the reasons to fight not to let the American economy fall into the mess of the 30's and 40's. Just sitting around waiting to be saved is no answer.Knowledge and then action to prevent the situations described in the book are necessary.

Fantastic Book!
I could not put this book down...certainly was the cause of a few tired mornings at work for keeping me up too late!It covers all the small details of life that most history books never get into.I was fascinated by all the "mundane" aspects of life that the author does a great job of describing in detail. You really get a good sense of what life was like during this time. I highly recommend it.

Just What I Was Looking For
There are many books out there about the Depression years, but they usually only give a VERY brief introduction to the era, then begin more or less in October of 1929, and are mostly historical rather than sociological. This author realized the importance to the reader of understanding the decade leading up to the Crash and the Depression, as well as learning about day-to-day life as it was lived by average Americans in order to reach a full understanding of what America was like during this time.This is EXACTLY the approach I was looking for and I was very pleased, indeed, by this volume.It is well-researched and well-written, and relates information I have had trouble finding elsewhere.I highly recommend it for a broad range of ages.

A fast read, like an 8th grade social studies text
This was a great read. I like how the author highlighted the social and the economic and the cultural changes that took place during these formative years in 20th century America. You read about the genius, yet uncompromising Henry Ford, who designed the Model T, and later the Model A, but failed in his bid to create a winning farm tractor (they kept tipping over backward).

You will also read about the greed and the heavy loans that banks gave out that led to the 1929 stock market crash. But you will also read about FDR's tremendous reforms: The creation of Social Security, the SEC, the FDIC, the Agricultural Adjustment Act (which was later struck down by the Supreme Court, but reintroduced in a different incarnation based on taxes), TVA, and many others.

I enjoyed reading about how American life changed with the advent of electric light in homes, which led people to read more. The chapters on marriage, divorce, and sexuality were also interesting.

This is a great book about the roaring Twenties and the depressing Thirties.

Learning from the first Great Depression (is GDII next?)
If we don't learn from the past....

This book is well-written: it is not a dry, plodding description of the Great Depression of the 30's and the decades before and after.The gaiety of the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition notwithstanding, is well-described, to the extent one can almost step into the post-WWI exhilaration. Only to be followed by financial disaster.

Then the crash of the stock market, explained so that even I, a non-financial-investments person, can comprehend the cause and effects.The daily life, which was what I initially sought to understand, was thoroughly examined from the popular attendance of the new talkies to the government programs initiated to alleviate the dire circumstances of so many people.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning from the past: a past that may resemble our future! ... Read more

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Product Description
Presents a social history of the United States during the 1920s, a decade of prosperity, Prohibition, Presidential scandals, fads and sensations, controversies, sports heroes, and the stock market crash. ... Read more

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Reared in an atmosphere of violence and corruption, it is easy to see how Alphonse Capone was destined for a life of crime.Capone raised organized crime to a new level of sophistication, turning the city of Chicago upside down in the process.How did he get away with it?At the heart of these biographies are the stories, not only of infamous individuals, but also of our past.Each title weaves the complex events of an era around the life story of an important historical figure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent book
Really liked this book. Got to the point and the service I received from ordering it was excellent. ... Read more

Product Description
It was an time of flappers, Model T Fords, a soaring stock market, Lucky Lindy and bootleg gin. The Roaring Twenties relives the 1920s through the eyes of those who witnessed it first hand, and brings the excitement, frivolity, and cultural transformation of that era to life. (20020701) ... Read more

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Prohibition era smuggling of contraband liquor in Michigan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

excellent illustrations and pictures of the period
One of the few concise looks at a colorful er ... Read more

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This book recounts a famous turf war raged during Prohibition. Charlie Birger's outsized ambitions brought him from New York to southern Illinois in search of fortune as a bootlegger. He soon found that his dream to be "even bigger than Al Capone" faced a few hurdles-including the vicious Shelton Brothers and Helen Holbrook, a beautiful, alcoholic socialite from Shawneetown, whose simultaneous affairs with Birger and Carl Shelton fueled a bloody and bizarre gang war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

awesome book, bad description
this book is an excellent book for people who just like a good gangster story, but it is especially good for people interested in true crime or anyone from southern illinois.the product description on this page is inaccurate though.i wont get into the issues specifically but almost all of it is wrong.read this book anyway.charlie birger remains one of the most interesting characters to come from prohibition americana and so is the shawnee town dame. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A great historical survey of Prohibition in Chesapeake Bay.
In Chesapeake Rumrunners Of The Roaring Twenties, Eric Mills tells the story of Prohibition in Chesapeake Bay country with a memorable cast the includes watermen and steamer captains, mob racketeers, and "legitimate" businessmen who took advantage of a nation's thirstfor alcohol to make their fortunes smuggling booze into the country. Thesaga also had Billy Sunday and an army of temperance crusaders campaigningto encourage Prohibition, federal agents and Coast Guardsmen burdened withthe impossible task of holding back the tide of alcohol from coming intothe country. In a maze of Bay waters, smuggler boats played a key role inthe illicit traffic, and were built for speed and the ability toout-maneuver the law while being disguised as ordinary work boats.Chesapeake Rumrunners Of The Roaring Twenties is a vivid, highlyrecommended history drawing on news reports, government records, and locallore to recreate an incredible time where some men sought to change humannature and before through the force of an unpopular law, and others soughtto make their fortunes in defiance of that same law.

A Lively Jaunt Through a Bygone Era
This fast-paced, readable chronicle of an almost forgotten era in American history fills a longstanding void.The fact that it is immensely entertaining,as well as informative, makes it doubly valuable.Itprovides a thorough, understandable history of the social forces at play inthe nation which led to the passage of the 18th Amendment and to theinevitability of its Repeal.

The author has done it again with this finecompanion to his superb CHESAPEAKE BAY IN THE CIVIL WAR.Bravo, EricMills!

Another Splendid Effort By Mills
Eric Mills has mastered the rare ability to bring back the past through skillful and imaginative writing. A terrific book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

manu
i think this is a very good book prescribed.AMAZON.COM&iliked it very much. ... Read more

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The surf isn't the only thing turbulent in these shoreline images of over 100 nubile beauties. Women dressed in the period's latest beach fashions charmed first their photographers, then the world. Their fascinating, playful, and sometimes evocative images were transformed into postcards and sent with holiday vacation greetings to friends and family worldwide. Take a dip back in time, to an era when women were joyfully expressing an emerging sense of equality and freedom. ... Read more

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Long before it came to prominence as the model city

of the New South, as well as earning the title "the

new Motown," Atlanta was a hotbed of entertainment,

business, and civic life for African Americans. At the same time that Harlem was undergoing its acclaimed renaissance, Atlanta could boast of excellent colleges, a thriving social environment, and an entertainment scene that could rival those of much larger cities. From Auburn Avenue, the hub of the city's African-American activity, a spirit of vibrant change and excitement radiated out to reach people across America. ... Read more