 Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, "The Great Gatsby" provides a critical social history of Prohibition-era America during the Jazz Age.That period—known for its jazz music, economic prosperity, flapper culture, libertine mores, rebellious youth, and ubiquitous speakeasies—is fully rendered in Fitzgerald's fictional narrative.Fitzgerald uses many of these 1920s societal developments to tell his story, from simple details such as petting in automobiles to broader themes such as Fitzgerald's discreet allusions to bootlegging as the source of Gatsby's fortune.