Doctorow's Ragtime seamlessly incorporates known history and artistic improvisation, thus creating a text which feels simultaneously familiar and unsettling. Thanks to Mr. Leff's U.S. history lectures, we have a general idea of the revolutionary ideas that took shape at the turn of the century and the conservative backlash against movements such as women's liberation. We know the stories of union strikes turned violent when factory bosses called in military support, and we know about America's brutal history of racism and oppression that sytematically denied African-American citizens political and economic equality to this day. Ragtime foregrounds these complex sociopolitical isssues, producing a picture of American history which agrees with our modern interpretations of the era. Doctorow's text becomes immediately historical. However, Doctorow's history is peppered with less familiar references, much like melodic chords sparkling out of the rythmic bass o...