The Roaring Twenties Summary

Linda Altman: An Expert on the Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties was an era strongly influenced by drugs, alcohol, organized crime, bootleggers, rum runners, social change, and the rise of American gangsters. Linda Altman, an author who specializes in writing about history, social issues, and multicultural subjects for young adults, writes about the roaring twenties and the factors which largely influenced the era in her book The Decade That Roared: America During Prohibition. Altman strongly acknowledges the Roaring Twenties with her book through using many outcomes which arose from the era. Three of the main outcomes which arose from the Roaring Twenties, that Altman uses to expound upon the roaring twenties, are organized crime, social changes, and alcohol. Organized crime in the United states was a mixture of guns, violence, prostitution, and large quantities of profits. According to Altman, organized crime consisted of, “executives, midlevel managers, and production workers-otherwise known as bosses” (43). This explains how organized crime was an actual business thoughtfully planned to gain large amounts of profit. A man known as Johnny Torrio took over organized crime business and hired Al Capone. Shortly after in business Torrio decided to retire from the organized crime lifestyle after being

However, the book is filled with clearly well worded paragraphs which help simplify the many outcomes of the Roaring Twenties. The book is based off a historical background of the rapid changing era and Altman does not focus on one specific outcome. She takes the major and most important aspects of the Roaring Twenties and offers a great book. For some readers, the book may seem very confusing and fear that they have a lot of information to read about. Some may feel as if the text they are reading is more a history book rather than a