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EspañolPROHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES
'Prohibition in the United States' (1920–1933) was the era during which the United States Constitution outlawed the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The term also refers to legal prohibitions against alcohol imposed by its various states, and the surrounding social-political movements advocating the passage of prohibition. Selling, manufacturing, or transporting (including importing and exporting) alcohol for beverage purposes was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment. Though drinking and possession of alcohol were not prohibited by the Constitution, those acts were limited by the federal Volstead Act, which became law during the prohibition era.
In colonial America, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable. There was a clear consensus that while alcohol was a gift from God, its abuse was from the Devil. "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of gluttony. Excess was a personal indiscretion." [1] When informal controls failed, there were always legal ones.
While infractions did occur, the general sobriety of the colonists suggests the effectiveness of their system of informal and formal controls in a population that averaged about three and a half gallons (about 13 litres) of absolute alcohol per year per person. That rate was dramatically higher than the present rate of consumption, estimated at 4.2 litres per adult worldwide and 8.6 litres per adult in the United States.[2]
Explanation was sought by medical men. One suggestion had come from one of the foremost physicians of the late 18th century, Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1784, he argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to physical and psychological health (he believed in moderation rather than prohibition). Apparently influenced by Rush's widely discussed belief, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community formed a temperance association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in Virginia in 1800 and New York in 1808. Within the next decade, other temperance organizations were formed in eight states, some being statewide organizations.
The prohibition or "dry" movement began in the 1840s, spearheaded by pietistic religious denominations, especially the Methodists.
In the 1830s, most temperance organizations began to argue that the only way to prevent drunkenness was to eliminate the consumption of alcohol. The Temperance Society became the Abstinence Society. The Independent Order of Good Templars, the Sons of Temperance, the Templars of Honor and Temperance, the Anti-Saloon League, the National Prohibition Party and other groups were formed and grew rapidly. With the passage of time, "The temperance societies became more and more extreme in the measures they championed."
While it began by advocating the temperate or moderate use of alcohol, the movement evolved into insisting that no one should be permitted to drink any alcohol in any quantity. It did so with religious fervor and increasing stridency.
The late 1800s saw the Temperance movement broaden its focus from abstinence to all behavior and institutions related to alcohol consumption. Preachers, such as Reverend Mark A. Matthews linked liquor-dispensing saloons with prostitution.
The prohibition of alcohol by law became a major issue in every political campaign from the national and state level down to those for school board members. In promoting what many prohibitionists saw as their religious duty, they perfected the techniques of pressure politics. Women in the movement even used their children to march, sing, and otherwise exert pressure at polling places. Dressed in white and clutching tiny American flags, the children would await their instruction to appeal to "wets" as they approached the voting booth.
Some successes were registered in the 1850s, including Maine's total ban on the manufacture and sale of liquor, adopted in 1851. However, the movement soon lost strength, and prohibition was not a major political issue during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It revived in the 1880s, with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party.
After the war, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1873. The organization did not promote moderation or temperance but rather prohibition. One of its methods to achieve that goal was education. It was believed that if it could "get to the children" it could create a dry sentiment leading to prohibition.
In 1881, Kansas became the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages in its Constitution, with Carrie Nation gaining notoriety for enforcing the provision herself by walking into saloons, scolding customers, and using her hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor. Other activists enforced the cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloon keepers to stop selling alcohol [1]. Many other states, especially in the South, also enacted prohibition, along with many individual counties. Hostility to saloons and their political influence was characteristic of the Progressive Era. Supported by the anti-German mood of World War I, the Anti-Saloon League, through intense lobbying, pushed the Constitutional amendment through Congress and the states, taking effect in 1920.
Prohibition was an important force in state and local politics from the 1840s through the 1930s. The political forces involved were ethnoreligious in character, as demonstrated by numerous historical studies.[3] Prohibition was demanded by the "dries" -- primarily pietistic Protestant denominations, especially the Methodists, Northern Baptists, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples, Congregationalists, Quakers, and Scandinavian Lutherans. They identified saloons as politically corrupt and drinking as a personal sin. They were opposed by the "wets" -- primarily liturgical Protestants (Episcopalians, German Lutherans) and Roman Catholics, who denounced the idea that the government should define morality.[4] Even in the wet stronghold of New York City there was an active prohibition movement, led by Norwegian church groups and African-American labor activists who believed that Prohibition would benefit workers, especially African-Americans. Tea merchants and soda fountain manufacturers generally supported Prohibition, thinking a ban on alcohol would increase sales of their products.[5]
Main articles: Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
National Prohibition was accomplished by means of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified January 29, 1919) and the Volstead Act (passed October 28, 1919). Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. Federal Prohibition agents (police) were given the task of enforcing the law. Principal impetus for the accomplishment of Prohibition were members of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the Prohibition Party. It was truly a cooperative effort with "progressives" making up a substantial portion of both major political parties. The main force were pietistic Protestants, who comprised majorities in the Republican party in the North, and the Democratic party in the South. Catholics and Germans were the main detractors; however, Germans were discredited by World War I, and their protests were ignored.
The 65th Congress met in 1917, and the Democratic dries outnumbered the wets by 140 to 64, while Republicans dries outnumbered the wets 138 to 62. In the 1916 presidential election, both Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes ignored the Prohibition issue, as was the case with both party's political platforms. Both Democrats and Republicans had strong wet and dry factions, and the election was expected to be close, with neither candidate wanting to alienate any part of their political base.
Although it was highly controversial, Prohibition was widely supported by diverse groups. Progressives believed that it would improve society and the Ku Klux Klan strongly supported its strict enforcement [2] as generally did women, southerners, those living in rural areas, and African-Americans.
While the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol was illegal in the U.S., it was not illegal in surrounding countries. Distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or illegally imported to the U.S.
Chicago became known notoriously as a haven for disobeying Prohibition during the time known as the Roaring Twenties. Many of Chicago's most notorious gangsters, including Al Capone and his enemy Bugs Moran, made millions of dollars through illegal alcohol sales. Numerous other crimes, including theft and murder, were directly linked to Chicago's anti-prohibition movements.
As Prohibition became increasingly unpopular, especially in the big cities, "Repeal" was eagerly anticipated. On March 23, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison bill allowing the manufacture and sale of "3.2 beer" (3.2 percent alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume) and light wines.[6] The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed later in 1933 with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, on December 5.
The Twenty-first Amendment explicitly gives states the right to restrict or ban the purchase or sale of alcohol; this has led to a patchwork of laws, in which alcohol may be legally sold in some but not all towns or counties within a particular state. After the repeal of the national constitutional amendment, some states continued to enforce prohibition laws. Mississippi, which had made alcohol illegal in 1907, was the last state to repeal prohibition, in 1966. There are numerous "dry" counties or towns where no liquor is sold; even though liquor can be brought in for private consumption.
Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Racketeering happened when powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle. The cost of enforcing prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on alcohol (some $500 million annually nationwide) affected government coffers. When repeal of prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption), because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores.
Prohibition had a notable effect on the brewing industry in the United States. When Prohibition ended, only half the breweries that had previously existed reopened. The post-prohibition period saw the introduction of the American lager style of beer, which dominates today. Wine historians also note that Prohibition destroyed what was a fledgling wine industry in the United States. Productive wine quality grape vines were replaced by lower quality vines growing thicker skinned grapes that could be more easily transported. Much of the institutional knowledge was also lost as wine makers either emigrated to other wine producing countries or left the business altogether.[7]
Despite the efforts of Heber J. Grant and the LDS Church, a Utah convention helped ratify the 21st Amendment [8] While Utah can be considered the deciding 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment and make it law, the day Utah passed the Amendment, both Pennsylvania and Ohio passed it as well. All 38 states that decided to hold conventions passed the Amendment, while only 36 states were needed (three fourths of the 48 that existed). So, even if Utah had not passed it, it would have become law.
At the end of prohibition some supporters openly admitted its failure. A quote from a letter, written in 1932 by wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., states:
★ In F. Scott Fitzgerald's book ''The Great Gatsby,'' Gatsby supposedly makes money by illegally selling alcohol.
★ In the ''Autobiography of Malcolm X,'' he tells of his stint working for a moonshiner on Long Island.
★ In Sinclair Lewis's ''Babbitt,'' the title character prides himself as a progressive who supports Prohibition, but does not follow it and drinks moderately.
The film ''The Untouchables'' chronicled the prohibition period, and the efforts of law enforcement during that period.
''Once Upon a Time in America'' also depicted anti-prohibition.
The Roaring Twenties, released in 1939 - one of only three films to feature both James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
★ One episode of the science-fiction program ''Sliders'' involved the sliders landing on an Earth where Prohibition was never repealed.
★ The TV series ''The Untouchables'' chronicled many real-life stories from Prohibition-era Chicago and the anti-racketeering campaign of Eliot Ness.
★ An episode of ''The Simpsons'' titled ''Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment'' involved Springfield deciding to enforce a long ignored Prohibition law.
★ An episode of the anime series Chrono Crusade involved the mafia warfare brought about by the Prohibition.
★ Bob Smith, one of the two founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, stayed drunk during prohibition, and took his last drink on June 10, 1935, a year and a half after the end of prohibition.
★ H. Allen Smith claimed to have taken the first legal drink after the repeal of prohibition. According to his account, Smith had bribed a telegraph operator to send a three-click signal before transmitting news of the 21st Amendment's passage, giving Smith a two-second "window" to take the first legal drink before anyone else.
★ Prohibition for coverage of other countries
★ Prohibition (drugs)
★ Al Capone
★ American Whiskey Trail
★ American-style lager
★ Bureau of Prohibition
★ Christianity and alcohol
★ Eliot Ness
★ Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment
★ James D. Porter, Jr. and the Four Mile Law in Tennessee
★ Legal drinking age
★ Network Against Prohibition
★ Repeal of prohibition
★ Repeal organizations
★ Rum-running
★ Temperance movement
★ United States Prohibition Party
★ Volstead Act
★ Webb-Kenyon Act
1. Aaron, Paul, and Musto, David. Temperance and Prohibition in America: An Historical Overview. In: Moore, Mark H., and Gerstein, Dean R. (eds.) Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1981. pp. 127-181.
2. http://earthtrends.wri.org/
3. Paul Kleppner, ''The Third Electoral System 1853�"1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures.'' (1979) pp 131-39; Paul Kleppner, ''Continuity and Change in Electoral Politics, 1893�"1928.'' (1987); Ballard Campbell, "Did Democracy Work? Prohibition in Late Nineteenth-century Iowa: a Test Case." ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' (1977) 8(1): 87-116; and Eileen McDonagh, "Representative Democracy and State Building in the Progressive Era." ''American Political Science Review'' 1992 86(4): 938-950.
4. Jensen (1971) ch 5.
5. Lerner (2007)
6. "Beer: A History of Brewing in Chicago", Bob Skilnik, Baracade Books, 2006 and The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, [3]
7. For a discussion of the long term effect of Prohibition on the US wine industry, see Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible, pp 630-631.
8. Reeve, W. Paul, "Prohibition Failed to Stop the Liquor Flow in Utah". ''Utah History to Go.'' (First published in ''History Blazer'', February 1995)
★ Kingsdale, Jon M. "The 'Poor Man's Club': Social Functions of the Urban Working-Class Saloon," ''American Quarterly'' vol. 25 (October, 1973): 472-89
★ Kyvig; David E. ''Law, Alcohol, and Order: Perspectives on National Prohibition'' Greenwood Press, 1985
★ Mark Lender, editor, ''Dictionary of American Temperance Biography'' Greenwood Press, 1984
★ Lerner, Michael A. ''Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City'', Harvard University Press, 2007.
★ Miron, Jeffrey A. and Jeffrey Zwiebel. “Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition.” ''American Economic Review'' 81, no. 2 (1991): 242-247.
★ Miron, Jeffrey A. "Alcohol Prohibition" ''Eh.Net Encyclopedia'' (2005) online
★ Moore, L.J. Historical interpretation of the 1920s Klan: the traditional view and the popular revision. ''Journal of Social History'', 1990, ''24 (2)'', 341-358.
★ Sellman; James Clyde. "Social Movements and the Symbolism of Public Demonstrations: The 1874 Women's Crusade and German Resistance in Richmond, Indiana" ''Journal of Social History''. Volume: 32. Issue: 3. 1999. pp 557+.
★ Rumbarger; John J. ''Profits, Power, and Prohibition: Alcohol Reform and the Industrializing of America, 1800–1930'' State University of New York Press, 1989
★ Sinclair; Andrew. ''Prohibition: The Era of Excess'' 1962.
★ Timberlake, James. ''Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920'' Harvard University Press, 1963
★ Tracy, Sarah W. and Caroline Jean Acker; ''Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800–2000'' U of Massachusetts Press, 2004
★ Victor A. Walsh, "'Drowning the Shamrock': Drink, Teetotalism and the Irish Catholics of Gilded-Age Pittsburgh," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' vol. 10, no. 1-2 (Fall 1990-Winter 1991): 60-79.
★ Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.
★ The Noble Experiment
★ Alcohol prohibition (EH.Net economic history encyclopedia)
★ The Effect of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption (PDF)
★ Hypertext History — U.S. Prohibition
★ Prohibition news page — Alcohol and Drugs History Society
★ About.com: Prohibition (in the U.S.)
★ Did Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime?
★ Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States by the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission Report on Alcohol Prohibition)
★ Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on Alcohol Prohibition — 1926
★ Policy Analysis — Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure
★ Prohibition in Appalachia: The Story of Johnson City,Tennessee
★ Free from the Nightmare of Prohibition (by Harry Browne)
★ Historic Images of US Prohibition
| Contents |
| Origins |
| 19th century |
| National Prohibition |
| End of Prohibition |
| Portrayal in media |
| Literature |
| Film |
| TV |
| Trivia |
| See also |
| Notes |
| References |
| External links |
Origins
In colonial America, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable. There was a clear consensus that while alcohol was a gift from God, its abuse was from the Devil. "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of gluttony. Excess was a personal indiscretion." [1] When informal controls failed, there were always legal ones.
While infractions did occur, the general sobriety of the colonists suggests the effectiveness of their system of informal and formal controls in a population that averaged about three and a half gallons (about 13 litres) of absolute alcohol per year per person. That rate was dramatically higher than the present rate of consumption, estimated at 4.2 litres per adult worldwide and 8.6 litres per adult in the United States.[2]
Explanation was sought by medical men. One suggestion had come from one of the foremost physicians of the late 18th century, Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1784, he argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to physical and psychological health (he believed in moderation rather than prohibition). Apparently influenced by Rush's widely discussed belief, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community formed a temperance association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in Virginia in 1800 and New York in 1808. Within the next decade, other temperance organizations were formed in eight states, some being statewide organizations.
19th century
The prohibition or "dry" movement began in the 1840s, spearheaded by pietistic religious denominations, especially the Methodists.
In the 1830s, most temperance organizations began to argue that the only way to prevent drunkenness was to eliminate the consumption of alcohol. The Temperance Society became the Abstinence Society. The Independent Order of Good Templars, the Sons of Temperance, the Templars of Honor and Temperance, the Anti-Saloon League, the National Prohibition Party and other groups were formed and grew rapidly. With the passage of time, "The temperance societies became more and more extreme in the measures they championed."
While it began by advocating the temperate or moderate use of alcohol, the movement evolved into insisting that no one should be permitted to drink any alcohol in any quantity. It did so with religious fervor and increasing stridency.
The late 1800s saw the Temperance movement broaden its focus from abstinence to all behavior and institutions related to alcohol consumption. Preachers, such as Reverend Mark A. Matthews linked liquor-dispensing saloons with prostitution.
The prohibition of alcohol by law became a major issue in every political campaign from the national and state level down to those for school board members. In promoting what many prohibitionists saw as their religious duty, they perfected the techniques of pressure politics. Women in the movement even used their children to march, sing, and otherwise exert pressure at polling places. Dressed in white and clutching tiny American flags, the children would await their instruction to appeal to "wets" as they approached the voting booth.
Some successes were registered in the 1850s, including Maine's total ban on the manufacture and sale of liquor, adopted in 1851. However, the movement soon lost strength, and prohibition was not a major political issue during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It revived in the 1880s, with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party.
After the war, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1873. The organization did not promote moderation or temperance but rather prohibition. One of its methods to achieve that goal was education. It was believed that if it could "get to the children" it could create a dry sentiment leading to prohibition.
"Who does not love wine, wife and song, will be a fool for his lifelong!" — a vigorous 1873 assertion of cultural values of German-American immigrants
In 1881, Kansas became the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages in its Constitution, with Carrie Nation gaining notoriety for enforcing the provision herself by walking into saloons, scolding customers, and using her hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor. Other activists enforced the cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloon keepers to stop selling alcohol [1]. Many other states, especially in the South, also enacted prohibition, along with many individual counties. Hostility to saloons and their political influence was characteristic of the Progressive Era. Supported by the anti-German mood of World War I, the Anti-Saloon League, through intense lobbying, pushed the Constitutional amendment through Congress and the states, taking effect in 1920.
Prohibition was an important force in state and local politics from the 1840s through the 1930s. The political forces involved were ethnoreligious in character, as demonstrated by numerous historical studies.[3] Prohibition was demanded by the "dries" -- primarily pietistic Protestant denominations, especially the Methodists, Northern Baptists, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples, Congregationalists, Quakers, and Scandinavian Lutherans. They identified saloons as politically corrupt and drinking as a personal sin. They were opposed by the "wets" -- primarily liturgical Protestants (Episcopalians, German Lutherans) and Roman Catholics, who denounced the idea that the government should define morality.[4] Even in the wet stronghold of New York City there was an active prohibition movement, led by Norwegian church groups and African-American labor activists who believed that Prohibition would benefit workers, especially African-Americans. Tea merchants and soda fountain manufacturers generally supported Prohibition, thinking a ban on alcohol would increase sales of their products.[5]
National Prohibition
Main articles: Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
National Prohibition was accomplished by means of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified January 29, 1919) and the Volstead Act (passed October 28, 1919). Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. Federal Prohibition agents (police) were given the task of enforcing the law. Principal impetus for the accomplishment of Prohibition were members of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the Prohibition Party. It was truly a cooperative effort with "progressives" making up a substantial portion of both major political parties. The main force were pietistic Protestants, who comprised majorities in the Republican party in the North, and the Democratic party in the South. Catholics and Germans were the main detractors; however, Germans were discredited by World War I, and their protests were ignored.
The 65th Congress met in 1917, and the Democratic dries outnumbered the wets by 140 to 64, while Republicans dries outnumbered the wets 138 to 62. In the 1916 presidential election, both Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes ignored the Prohibition issue, as was the case with both party's political platforms. Both Democrats and Republicans had strong wet and dry factions, and the election was expected to be close, with neither candidate wanting to alienate any part of their political base.
Although it was highly controversial, Prohibition was widely supported by diverse groups. Progressives believed that it would improve society and the Ku Klux Klan strongly supported its strict enforcement [2] as generally did women, southerners, those living in rural areas, and African-Americans.
While the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol was illegal in the U.S., it was not illegal in surrounding countries. Distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or illegally imported to the U.S.
Chicago became known notoriously as a haven for disobeying Prohibition during the time known as the Roaring Twenties. Many of Chicago's most notorious gangsters, including Al Capone and his enemy Bugs Moran, made millions of dollars through illegal alcohol sales. Numerous other crimes, including theft and murder, were directly linked to Chicago's anti-prohibition movements.
End of Prohibition
As Prohibition became increasingly unpopular, especially in the big cities, "Repeal" was eagerly anticipated. On March 23, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison bill allowing the manufacture and sale of "3.2 beer" (3.2 percent alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume) and light wines.[6] The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed later in 1933 with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, on December 5.
The Twenty-first Amendment explicitly gives states the right to restrict or ban the purchase or sale of alcohol; this has led to a patchwork of laws, in which alcohol may be legally sold in some but not all towns or counties within a particular state. After the repeal of the national constitutional amendment, some states continued to enforce prohibition laws. Mississippi, which had made alcohol illegal in 1907, was the last state to repeal prohibition, in 1966. There are numerous "dry" counties or towns where no liquor is sold; even though liquor can be brought in for private consumption.
Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Racketeering happened when powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle. The cost of enforcing prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on alcohol (some $500 million annually nationwide) affected government coffers. When repeal of prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption), because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores.
Prohibition had a notable effect on the brewing industry in the United States. When Prohibition ended, only half the breweries that had previously existed reopened. The post-prohibition period saw the introduction of the American lager style of beer, which dominates today. Wine historians also note that Prohibition destroyed what was a fledgling wine industry in the United States. Productive wine quality grape vines were replaced by lower quality vines growing thicker skinned grapes that could be more easily transported. Much of the institutional knowledge was also lost as wine makers either emigrated to other wine producing countries or left the business altogether.[7]
Despite the efforts of Heber J. Grant and the LDS Church, a Utah convention helped ratify the 21st Amendment [8] While Utah can be considered the deciding 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment and make it law, the day Utah passed the Amendment, both Pennsylvania and Ohio passed it as well. All 38 states that decided to hold conventions passed the Amendment, while only 36 states were needed (three fourths of the 48 that existed). So, even if Utah had not passed it, it would have become law.
At the end of prohibition some supporters openly admitted its failure. A quote from a letter, written in 1932 by wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., states:
When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognised. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.
Portrayal in media
Literature
★ In F. Scott Fitzgerald's book ''The Great Gatsby,'' Gatsby supposedly makes money by illegally selling alcohol.
★ In the ''Autobiography of Malcolm X,'' he tells of his stint working for a moonshiner on Long Island.
★ In Sinclair Lewis's ''Babbitt,'' the title character prides himself as a progressive who supports Prohibition, but does not follow it and drinks moderately.
Film
The film ''The Untouchables'' chronicled the prohibition period, and the efforts of law enforcement during that period.
''Once Upon a Time in America'' also depicted anti-prohibition.
The Roaring Twenties, released in 1939 - one of only three films to feature both James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
TV
★ One episode of the science-fiction program ''Sliders'' involved the sliders landing on an Earth where Prohibition was never repealed.
★ The TV series ''The Untouchables'' chronicled many real-life stories from Prohibition-era Chicago and the anti-racketeering campaign of Eliot Ness.
★ An episode of ''The Simpsons'' titled ''Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment'' involved Springfield deciding to enforce a long ignored Prohibition law.
★ An episode of the anime series Chrono Crusade involved the mafia warfare brought about by the Prohibition.
Trivia
★ Bob Smith, one of the two founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, stayed drunk during prohibition, and took his last drink on June 10, 1935, a year and a half after the end of prohibition.
★ H. Allen Smith claimed to have taken the first legal drink after the repeal of prohibition. According to his account, Smith had bribed a telegraph operator to send a three-click signal before transmitting news of the 21st Amendment's passage, giving Smith a two-second "window" to take the first legal drink before anyone else.
See also
★ Prohibition for coverage of other countries
★ Prohibition (drugs)
★ Al Capone
★ American Whiskey Trail
★ American-style lager
★ Bureau of Prohibition
★ Christianity and alcohol
★ Eliot Ness
★ Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment
★ James D. Porter, Jr. and the Four Mile Law in Tennessee
★ Legal drinking age
★ Network Against Prohibition
★ Repeal of prohibition
★ Repeal organizations
★ Rum-running
★ Temperance movement
★ United States Prohibition Party
★ Volstead Act
★ Webb-Kenyon Act
Notes
1. Aaron, Paul, and Musto, David. Temperance and Prohibition in America: An Historical Overview. In: Moore, Mark H., and Gerstein, Dean R. (eds.) Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1981. pp. 127-181.
2. http://earthtrends.wri.org/
3. Paul Kleppner, ''The Third Electoral System 1853�"1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures.'' (1979) pp 131-39; Paul Kleppner, ''Continuity and Change in Electoral Politics, 1893�"1928.'' (1987); Ballard Campbell, "Did Democracy Work? Prohibition in Late Nineteenth-century Iowa: a Test Case." ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' (1977) 8(1): 87-116; and Eileen McDonagh, "Representative Democracy and State Building in the Progressive Era." ''American Political Science Review'' 1992 86(4): 938-950.
4. Jensen (1971) ch 5.
5. Lerner (2007)
6. "Beer: A History of Brewing in Chicago", Bob Skilnik, Baracade Books, 2006 and The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, [3]
7. For a discussion of the long term effect of Prohibition on the US wine industry, see Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible, pp 630-631.
8. Reeve, W. Paul, "Prohibition Failed to Stop the Liquor Flow in Utah". ''Utah History to Go.'' (First published in ''History Blazer'', February 1995)
References
★ Kingsdale, Jon M. "The 'Poor Man's Club': Social Functions of the Urban Working-Class Saloon," ''American Quarterly'' vol. 25 (October, 1973): 472-89
★ Kyvig; David E. ''Law, Alcohol, and Order: Perspectives on National Prohibition'' Greenwood Press, 1985
★ Mark Lender, editor, ''Dictionary of American Temperance Biography'' Greenwood Press, 1984
★ Lerner, Michael A. ''Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City'', Harvard University Press, 2007.
★ Miron, Jeffrey A. and Jeffrey Zwiebel. “Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition.” ''American Economic Review'' 81, no. 2 (1991): 242-247.
★ Miron, Jeffrey A. "Alcohol Prohibition" ''Eh.Net Encyclopedia'' (2005) online
★ Moore, L.J. Historical interpretation of the 1920s Klan: the traditional view and the popular revision. ''Journal of Social History'', 1990, ''24 (2)'', 341-358.
★ Sellman; James Clyde. "Social Movements and the Symbolism of Public Demonstrations: The 1874 Women's Crusade and German Resistance in Richmond, Indiana" ''Journal of Social History''. Volume: 32. Issue: 3. 1999. pp 557+.
★ Rumbarger; John J. ''Profits, Power, and Prohibition: Alcohol Reform and the Industrializing of America, 1800–1930'' State University of New York Press, 1989
★ Sinclair; Andrew. ''Prohibition: The Era of Excess'' 1962.
★ Timberlake, James. ''Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920'' Harvard University Press, 1963
★ Tracy, Sarah W. and Caroline Jean Acker; ''Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800–2000'' U of Massachusetts Press, 2004
★ Victor A. Walsh, "'Drowning the Shamrock': Drink, Teetotalism and the Irish Catholics of Gilded-Age Pittsburgh," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' vol. 10, no. 1-2 (Fall 1990-Winter 1991): 60-79.
External links
★ Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.
★ The Noble Experiment
★ Alcohol prohibition (EH.Net economic history encyclopedia)
★ The Effect of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption (PDF)
★ Hypertext History — U.S. Prohibition
★ Prohibition news page — Alcohol and Drugs History Society
★ About.com: Prohibition (in the U.S.)
★ Did Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime?
★ Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States by the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission Report on Alcohol Prohibition)
★ Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on Alcohol Prohibition — 1926
★ Policy Analysis — Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure
★ Prohibition in Appalachia: The Story of Johnson City,Tennessee
★ Free from the Nightmare of Prohibition (by Harry Browne)
★ Historic Images of US Prohibition
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