It was the second war of American independence.
The post war economic boom was due primarily to foreign debt. The United States made substantial loans to European countries during World War I. Although the Europeans had very little money to repay the debts, American bankers restructured the loans to facilitate repayment. Although a brief recession occured in the early part of the decade, the Roaring Twenties saw the expansion of the stock market and considerable profit for investors.
B. it was in 1848, so that's before the civil war.
I would have probably been a patron of the arts.
