A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, published the year the Vietnam War came to a close in 1975.
As a work of historical fiction, Ragtime uses a turn-of-the-century America as a pedestal to showcase issues such as freedom, identity, and justice. Moreover, Doctorow was one of the first to use magic realism to discuss and dissect the nature of change.