Every mouth I meet opens to complain, “Things’ve changed . . . Nothing’s the same . . . Not like we were . . . The country isn’t what it was . . .” So I checked back — exactly 100 years — to see the America of 1919. World War I over. The USA needed security. Instead, cities experienced “Red Scare” bombings, race riots, workers striking, vets competing for jobs, May Day demonstrations, armed resistance movements and the deportations of 149 people, including Emma Goldman, to Russia. Historians rate 1919 “America’s worst year.” Dial telephones, pop-up toasters and shortwave radios made their entrance. Despite that pardon-the-expression “car”...
