We all know the phrase “the Roaring 20s,” but do we know why they are called that? In this class, we will be taking a close look at roughly 50 years of human history, from 1900 to 1950. Here we will find WWI and WWII, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the Great Depression, the rise of dictators and the “democratic” responses, worldwide pandemics, Queen Victoria’s grandchildren, and a host of memorable figures like Gandhi, Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, Mao tse-tung and Chiang kai-shek, Mussolini, Churchill and Roosevelt, and, of course, Adolf Hitler. This period is historically rich and comes just before many of our own memories as children born in the 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s. Students should be willing to read some primary sources.