Description

A pandemic, protests, and economic jolts ushered in the so-called “Roaring Twenties.” Americans adjusted in ways both innovative and counterproductive. What lessons from the 1920s can we apply to our own looming 20s?

Historian William Woodward charts the eerily familiar developments of a century ago: shattered idealism, social clashes, domestic terrorism, culture wars, disorienting technologies, and fearsome disease. How might stories from a particular moment in the past—one with remarkable parallels to the present—shed light on ways for us to move forward? As the 2020s unfold, what conversations should we have? William Woodward is an award-winning professor of American and Pacific Northwest history at Seattle Pacific University? His teaching, research, and writing focus on iconic elements of regional and national culture, including the military and baseball. His co-authored pictorial history of the Washington National Guard was released in 2019. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College, as well as a master’s degree and PhD from Georgetown University. This event is sponsored by Humanities Washington.