“The great Art Deco monuments of New York still define the city’s look, even as they reach their hundredth anniversaries. But they didn’t just happen to show up in the aftermath of World War I—they are products of the Roaring Twenties, one of the most colorful, if somewhat mythical, decades of the city’s history. Strike up the Band is a fast-paced romp through that remarkable period, from speakeasies, literary hang-outs, flappers, and skyscrapers to the Harlem Renaissance, the Yiddish Rialto, and Tammany Hall politics. Hang on to your hats. . . .”

"A spirited chronicle of the Roaring Twenties in New York City. . . . A combination of immigration, energy, speculation and an effective system of backhanders meant that now, after the dreary years of the war and the Spanish flu, almost anything could get done. Strike Up the Band tells the story of those years, roaming over the city then dropping down to the streets, through the doors of hotels, nightclubs, shady restaurants and civil institutions to examine, in chapters themed by activity, all the novelties of the day. The buildings were new and so were the drinks, the dances, the entertainments and the people, as millions of Jewish, Irish and European immigrants, in addition to black Americans coming from southern states, fled the limitations of their birthplaces to make lives where you could at least hope for better."