Jazz Against Prohibition: Nightlife Race and Urban Freedom

Music spilled from clubs while law tried to regulate drink, leisure, and public behavior. The 1920s made nightlife a battleground over race, gender, migration, morality, and modern urban identity. This book explores the Jazz Age through the spaces where people danced, listened, worked, and crossed social boundaries. It connects musical innovation with Prohibition, segregation, commercial entertainment, and the growth of mass media. Rather than presenting the decade as uninterrupted glamour, it reveals a culture shaped by both new freedoms and persistent constraints.