For the healing of the nations there must be good will and charity, confidence and peace," President Calvin Coolidge declared at the end of 1923, as the shadow of WWI continued to loom over America. What was life actually like in the decade that came to be known as the Roaring Twenties? While most history textbooks emphasize the country's recovery from war, the 1920s were full of great change and progress for many Americans. During this decade, the economy doubled, meaning people bought more goods and had more time to invest in leisure activities. It was an era of seemingly endless prosperity, which came to a sudden halt when 1929's Wall Street crash triggered the Great Depression.