The Jazz Age may have ended in 1929, according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who called it an age of miracles, an age of art, an age of excess — one that once people lost confidence, “it didn’t take long for the flimsy structure to settle earthward.” However, according to social historian Michael Wolraich, there was more going on during that era than a loss of confidence. Wolraich’s latest social history, The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age, describes the period in extensive detail.
First, there was Prohibition, 1920 to 1933, which did not stop people from drinking. Rather, it motivated them to find illegal ways to partake. Then, and relatedly, there was crime: gin-filled bathtubs, bootleggers, speakeasies, and prostitutes. Above all, there was money, which passed from the lawbreakers to the corrupt police and politicians. Without money, one couldn’t have had the booze, sex, dancing, glamor, youth culture, or dreams.
