This started as a story about what happens after a pandemic ends. I pitched my editor on the idea in early May. Every adult in America could get a vaccine. Covid-19 numbers started to fall. If the Roaring ’20s came after the Spanish flu a century ago, did that mean we were on track for another Roaring ’20s now? Would “Hot Vax Summer give way to Decadent Gatsby Party Autumn? I started to dig in. A number of compelling parallels emerged: America 100 years ago had staggering income inequality. A booming stock market. Racial uprisings. Anti-immigrant sentiment. A one-term president plagued by scan…

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