Of all the new technologies, radio may be having the most impact. Ordinary people now sit around the radio and listen to comedy shows and nightly news. When Warren Harding is elected in 1920, he addresses the nation over the radio. Imagine that—people can actually hear their president's voice! In the Roaring Twenties more people have more money than ever before. And, mostly, they are intent on having a good time. Even though for a few years—called Prohibition —there is a constitutional amendment outlawing liquor, people are still drinking it, in illegal bars called speakeasies . Some people behave as if life is just one long, frantic party. But the number of people without jobs is growing. Farmers are in trouble . And the returning war veterans often feel out of place in these roaring times. The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald speaks on behalf of many when he writes, "Our generation has grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken."

After the war, everything was supposed to be better. But anyone can see it isn't. So maybe the best thing to do is to forget about ideals and have a good time—frantically—which was what a lot of Americans do in the twenties.