Politics

These highlights will be really short – after all, you are taking US history now anyway.

* Effective January 16, 1920 the 18th Amendment became effective and fostered corruption and the growth of organized crime.

* Famous trials – the Scopes “Monkey” trial, the Leopold and Loeb trial, the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, and the “Black Sox” trial (more later in Sports).

* Women won the right to vote on August 26, 1920, when the 19th Amendment was adopted.

* The Teapot Dome Scandal added to public cynicism about government.

* The explosion of the economy, the lawlessness, the cynicism, the dramatic social changes came to a climactic end with the stock market crash on “black Monday”, October 28, 1929 and that was the beginning of the Great Depression.

All these elements with their “anything goes” attitude contribute to the atmosphere and the background of FSF’s The Great Gatsby – keep that in mind.