It’s been said that “peace is that brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.” For the brief moment between the two global wars of the 20th century, everybody who could afford it stood around gloriously drinking champagne. The sorrows of the Great War weren’t only personal — they launched a generation into the indulgence and excess that have become trademarks of their era. Perceiving the fragility of life, the partiers of the 1920s and ’30s took the eat-drink-and-take-pleasure advice of Ecclesiastes to heart, often in a less than biblical manner. A century later, the glamor still fascinates...