They identified themselves with the century its teens were their teens, troubled but confident its World War, not yet known as the First, was theirs to fight on the winning side its reckless twenties were their twenties. As Americans and optimists, they believed that the business was fundamentally sound. Those who were lucky enough to be born a little before the end of the last century, in any of the years from 1895 to 1900, went through much of their lives with a feeling that the new century was about to be placed in their charge it was like a business in financial straits that could be rescued by a timely change in management.
