Roaring Twenties | Anxious Decade | 5

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Roaring 20s are often described as a time of optimism and decadence, teeming with flappers, jazz and bootlegged liquor. It was the decade that birthed modern America. But with that birth came growing tensions over civil rights, the urban-rural divide and other culture wars.

Historian Michael E. Parrish captured the period in his book Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920 -1941. In this episode, Parrish joins host Lindsay Graham to discuss Ponzi schemes, the birth of celebrity culture, and how the lessons learned from the ‘20s still resonate today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.0	Imagine it's August 1920 in Boston.
0:21.3	You've clawed your way to the front of a crowd of hundreds of people clamoring to get inside
0:25.6	the offices of the securities exchange company.
0:29.0	You put all your savings from your meager grocer salary into this company, which is run
0:33.7	by an investment wizard named Charles Ponzi.
0:37.0	But today, you're trying to redeem your investment voucher early after you read an article in
0:41.7	the Boston Post, a cast suspicion on Ponzi's operation.
0:45.7	Hey, everyone, just please, we're doing the best we can.
0:49.0	Okay, you, sir, you're next.
0:52.0	A clerk usheres you inside and quickly closes the door behind you.
0:56.1	Once inside Ponzi's offices, it's eerily quiet.
0:59.8	Place seems almost deserted.
1:02.4	The clerk leads you into a small office littered with boxes and piles of paper and offers
1:07.0	you a seat.
1:08.5	Ugh, I'm sorry about the way.
1:11.2	Business is booming.
1:12.3	Can I get you some coffee?
1:14.1	Coffee?
1:15.1	No, I don't need any coffee.
1:16.1	I need what I want is to cash out my investment.
	...

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