What an amazing year 1919 was. It is a year full of change in America and not all of it is known is known to Americans. 1919 was the year after the Great War (WWI) and the Spanish Flu epidemic and it was a busy year. The Great Molasses Flood destroys part of Boston's North End. I had heard of the molasses flood (thanks I Survived series), but didn't realize it was all about liquor! Prohibition is coming later in the year and molasses is a main ingredient in rum. The disaster was also one of the first times a company was held liable for damages to people and property. Then came the suffragettes and the right to vote for women. What always surprises me about this issue is how the West was more progressive and allowed women more power than the East. That and how long it actually took for women to get the vote. There is a still a long way to go towards true equality but it was a big start. Then you have Prohibition, the biggest failed experiment in American politics. It is interesting to me that making alcohol illegal brought about so many bad things, like gangsters. It didn't even solve the problem it was supposed to but instead created new ones. The other things touched on in this book are race riots and strikes. While the strikes were largely unsuccessful they did help future generations and were instrumental in starting talks on how workers should be treated. Then there were the race riots which I think are largely unknown and untaught in American history. We think of racial tensions in the 1960s but 1919 was a year where a lot of blood was spilled because of race. I really enjoyed how all these events were tied together by Sandler to create a picture of what was going on in this country during this pivotal year 100 years ago. However, my favorite parts of the book were the looking forward sections after each event that tied that event into current events. Some have direct correlations but others were a little more subtle and really made you think.