250 years of American independence: Sinclair Lewis, the Nobel Prize-winning author who 'burst the smugness' of the average American

'America 250' (9/13). The 'Roaring Twenties' saw consumerism, puritanism, and xenophobia rise together in the United States. Sinclair Lewis, a native of Sauk Centre, a rural town in Minnesota, rose to fame with his biting satires of American life, which still resonate today.