Too often, notes historian David Goldberg, the mythic allure of the "Roaring Twenties" has deafened our ears to the real voices of those who lived through the decade. In this account, he integrates social and political history to provide a new take on the 1920s - an account that seeks to be deeply rooted in the perspectives of that time. Goldberg argues that this contentious and fascinating decade should be viewed now as it was viewed then, as a distinctive post-war period, during which many of the conflicts generated by World War I continued to reverberate throughout American society. As America sought to step back from the leadership role it had taken in World War I, Goldberg explains, the nation faced internal battles over women's suffrage, prohibition of the sale of "intoxicating beverages", the spectre of communism, and the declining power of labour unions. Large numbers of African Americans migrated from the southern states to the north in search of employment and a better life, and at the same time, there was another heavy wave of newcomers from overseas.
These, Goldberg concludes, were the issues that preoccupied serious Americans, and their concern is reflected in the federal legislation of the period, from constitutional amendments providing for prohibition and women's suffrage to the National Origins Act, meant to curtail immigration from non-western European countries.