The Roaring Twenties

Stylistically speaking, we have been told that Fitzgerald sets many of his scenes during parties. So far, there have been two gatherings of some sort. In each, Nick has met at least one new person, and formed an opinion about him or her quickly. Whether he is biased or not remains unseen to me. I do not agree that he is 100% neutral. It's possible, but I am not convinced yet. His opinions of people are harsh. Tom is not a good person, but I doubt he's as horrible as Nick believes. To me, Tom has a temper, and gets bored easily. I wouldn't want to associate with him, but he must have his good points. However, so far, all we are seeing are his bad points, described by Nick.

The reason for my post though is not to discuss Nick's narration, but the setting of the novel. It takes place in the summer of 1922, a time of jazz and prohibition; one of ten years that constitute as the "roaring twenties." What I'm wondering is why that's such a popular time to write about. Couldn't this novel have taken place at a different time? Coming from a theatre geeks prospected, the roaring twenties is almost cliché because it is so over-used. And in each play, musical or novel I've seen or read, there has a been at least one moment of illegal drinking. Now those two words have a different meaning these days, but back then, alcohol was illegal. I don't understand why this common denominator exists. The question I'm posing is: Why the twenties?