During the 1920s a French writer visited the United States and was astounded. The nation “has again become a new world,” wrote André Siegfried. “The American people are creating on a vast scale an entirely new social structure…it may even be a new age.”

This “new age” saw the emergence of a prosperous consumer economy, a popular culture that embraced cosmopolitan life, and mass entertainment delivered by radio and the movies. It was also a period of bitter cultural conflict, of the Ku Klux Klan, and battles over Prohibition, evolution, and immigration.

From our vantage point of nearly a century later, we’ll examine this era of dramatic change and deep division. We’ll also consider the Republican governments of the era which raised tariffs, cut taxes, restricted immigration, and went their own way in foreign affairs.