Are the romantic images of the 1920s (gangsters, flappers, speakeasies, movie stars) really accurate?

Of course, people and eras are rarely portrayed in a way
that is 100% accurate.  This is true of the Roaring 20s.  However, much of these
portrayals truly does capture the reality of the 1920s.

It
is beyond dispute that the values and behavior of many (but not all) women was changing
during the '20s.  Flappers were real and they truly were different than women had been
previously.  However, it is by no means true that all women were flappers or that all
young women acted in these new ways.  Our vision of the '20s focuses on what was new,
not what was similar to the old days.  So it is probably fair to say that our views of
the '20s overstate the amount of change in women's lives but we must also realize that
real changes were happening.

The same goes for gangsters
and speakesies.  This was the era of Prohibition and gangsters truly did get rich off
illegal alcohol.  There were speakeasies with jazz music playing.  However, the average
person (especially outside the cities) was never going to end up in a
speakeasy.

Overall then, the image we have of the '20s is
somewhat (but by no means completely) exaggerated.  Our images of any decade tend to be
somewhat caricatured because it is impossible to capture the full diversity of life in
any given time period.