Although Americans have always been a hard-drinking people, voters
used the democratic process to ban alcohol from 1920 to 1933. This
bizarre episode, which uniquely involved two constitutional
amendments, has often been humorously recalled, frequently
satirized, and usually condemned. The more interesting questions,
however, are how and why Prohibition came about, how Prohibition
worked (and failed to work), and how Prohibition gave way to strict
governmental regulation of alcohol. This book answers these
questions, presenting a brief and elegant overview of the
Prohibition era. During the 1920s alcohol prices rose, quality
declined, and consumption dropped. Since beer was too bulky to hide
and largely disappeared, drinkers swallowed mixed drinks made with
moonshine or mediocre imported liquor. The all-male saloon gave way
to the speakeasy, where men and women drank, ate, and danced to
jazz. This book illustrates how public support for prohibition
collapsed due to gangster violence and the need for local, state,
and federal government alcohol revenue during the Great Depression.
As public opinion turned against prohibition, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt promised to repeal prohibition in 1932. Legal, taxed beer
came in April 1933, and the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified in
December 1933. After 1933, state alcohol control boards adopted
strong regulations, whose legacies continue to influence American
drinking habits. With his unparalleled historical knowledge and
expertise in American drinking patterns, W. J. Rorabaugh provides
an elegant and accessible synthesis of one of the most important
topics in US history, showing how a powerful socio-political
movement can shift emphasis over time.
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