Great Gatsby, The: Organized Crime

Author Karen L. Trespacz introduces readers to the life and times of gangster Al Capone in Chicago. The focus then shifts to the U.S. government's plan to charge Capone with tax evasion, failure to pay his taxes. This was the only criminal charge officials could prove Capone had committed. Capone's time in jail as a model prisoner and his death are also detailed.

It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places. Over time, their protests, petitions, and activism paid off--when a Constitional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified, it was hailed as the end of public drunkenness, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills related to booze. Instead, it began a decade of lawlessness, when children smuggled (and drank) illegal alcohol, the most upright citizens casually broke the law, and a host of notorious gangsters entered the public eye.

Who were the flappers? What were "talkies?" What was the Harlem Renaissance? Covers the effect of prohibition and the newfound freedom of women on the popular culture of the era.