Book excerpt: The 1920s is one of the most fascinating decades in American history, when the seeds of modern American life were sown. It was a time of prosperity and recovery from war, when women's roles began to change and advertising and credit made it desirable and easy to acquire a vast array of new products. But there was a dark side of crime and corruption, racial intolerance, hard times for immigrants and farmers, and an impending financial collapse. The Roaring Twenties: Discover the Era of Prohibition, Flappers, and Jazz explores all the different aspects of the time, from literature and music to politics, fashion, economics, and invention. To experience one of the most vibrant eras in US history, readers will debate the pros and cons of prohibition, create an advertising campaign for a new product, and analyze and compare events leading to the stock market crashes of 1929 and 2008. The Roaring Twenties meets common core state standards in language arts for reading informational text and literary nonfiction and is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements indicate grade level and text complexity.