ABSTRACT
W orld War I was over. America began to emerge from its isolationfrom the world, although the failure of the U.S. Senate to ratifythe League of Nations Covenant showed we had a long way to go. Politically, the country drifted until the “normalcy” of the Harding administration starting in 1921. While many rural areas endured economic hardship, businesses in the cities faced the pent-up demand for all the goods and services unavailable since early 1917. Migration from countryside to city accelerated, while restrictive legislation slowed immigration from abroad. The new mobility of the automobile, adding congestion to the cities and creating the suburbs, expanded the immediate horizons of Americans. At the same time, the motion picture shattered barriers of time and distance and showed ordinary audiences a new, faster life outside their immediate surroundings. The changes in American attitudes that accompanied both these developments were ready targets for men and women who preferred a rigid, traditional, moral climate-such as the reformers who were flushed with Prohibition, their victory over Demon Rum.
