Daniel Okrent’s book Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition is a thorough history of the Prohibition era. Okrent’s narrative is an easy to follow and enjoyable read. During the first few pages of his book, Okrent clearly lays out the themes and ideas he will explore throughout. While Okrent demonstrates that January 17, 1920 brought Prohibition after the ratification of the 18th Amendment the year prior that banned the manufacturing, sale and transportation of alcohol, he also argues that the prohibition was far more complex than this amendment. Okrent argues that the 18th Amendment was a culmination of social and political movements, leading to the dryness of a country.
The Eighteenth Amendment which instituted prohibition in America and its territories was an interesting attempt at using the constitutional amendment process to shape social and moral behavior in America. Until the Twenty-First Amendment which repealed prohibition, the road to prohibition in America dates back to colonial days. Although the amendment did not last as it was reversed by the Twenty-First Amendment less than 15 years later, along the way, the battleground for prohibition grew from local organizations to a national political party and set new interpretations for the Constitutional amendment process and played an important role in in American history. The Eighteenth Amendment was the high-water mark for what is often referred to
By 1932, Americans had reversed the approval and disapproval making the disapproval rating had gone higher. Americans disapproved the prohibition because the criminality and murder went up, business’ were going down and it was impossible to enforce no alcohol. The rate of criminals went up leading to more murders when the Prohibition was enforced. Many criminals such as gangsters, racketeers, bootleggers, and dope sellers got “helped” out by prohibition. Especially in the Great Depression, were alcohol was even more wanted.
Two events in US History between 1920 and 1940 that inform the other are the Great Depression and The Prohibition. The Great Depression was the greatest economic slump in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It was considered one of the most significant economic crises in history. The Great Depression was caused by decreasing consumer demand, rising consumer debt, minimized industrial productivity, and the rapid uncontrolled development of the United States stock market. During the 1920s, company owners failed to give significant pay increases for employees, resulting in overproduction of many products by the end of the decade.
As the roaring twenties reached their end the battle against alcohol in the United States is just arising to a turning point. With serious controversy over the Volstead Act the country was greatly divided. There was also the extreme rising occurrences of crime, the creation of gangs and a newly established, unorganized criminal justice system. Prohibition was a disaster across America and the more reforment from the government just made things worse.
The months before going into the 1920's and the prohibition movement was marked with people abusing their right to have a drink here and there. When the Americans passed the eighteenth amendment in 1919 it made a change in the way the people acted because some would not even drink at all. The eighteenth amendment was passed to ban the production, sale, and use of alcohol. As the eighteenth was published, the problem of trying to enact this law was getting the Americans to obey the law was a great responsibility as drunks illegally continued to drink alcohol. Throughout this time period, numerous people came forward on both sides of the war against and for prohibition.
The country was trying to control America’s alcohol problems by law. The ban on alcohol worsened America’s alcohol problem, in fact, it did quite the opposite of its intention. All caused by prohibition, America had an increased crime rate, death rate, and to top it off, America was losing slathers of money.
The protest was not the only reason prohibition ended. Prohibition ended because, crime rose, people were corrupted and the government lost tax revenues. First of all, prohibition ended because crime rose. The homicide rate per 100,000 Americans was 10 in 1933 (Doc. B). It had peeked
America was trying to rid itself of violence and crime when the Volstead Act was passed. The country suffered when alcohol caused spousal abuse and America wanted to rid themselves of that crime. Instead, Prohibition enlarged violence and crime in other ways. In Document F, it shows that there was an elevated number of illegal saloons, breweries, and industrial alcohol production after years of Prohibition. America changed its mind because many criminals were not following the rules of Prohibition and it was ineffective.
"A great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose" President Herbert Hoover’s description of the prohibition. 1920-1933 is the period when the eighteenth amendment was set in place which established the Prohibition. The Prohibition was a ban on alcoholic beverages where they could not legally be manufactured, transported, or sold in the U.S., this was supposed to have a positive impact on the country. Prohibition in America during 1920s was largely ineffective because the the economy started to decline and it negatively affected the American people, although there were some positives.
Imagine working sixty-hour weeks on your family farm planting the harvest, feeding the livestock, mending fences, and fixing equipment because your family can afford to hire a mechanic. You rise well before sunrise in the dark to tend to the animals while your younger siblings sleep. As they laugh and play on their walk to school, you must stay home and help your parents work to keep the farm going. They get to socialize with their peers each day, but you can't remember the last time you talked to anyone your age. Then one day you wake up and find all your hard work and sacrifice blown away by the wind.
America: A Perception Changed Prohibition, the age of ‘dry states’, illegal drinking, and, all in all, the height of organized criminal activity; veterans joined the crime as a last option, vulnerable humans ran the streets unemployed and looking for a way to drown their sorrows. Organized criminals defiantly took advantage of the “Roaring Twenties” misfortunes, they provided illegal alcohol to the people, gave jobs to the unemployed, who needed the lucrative labor, and drove the number of alcoholics up the wall in droves. “The arrests under the Volstead Act from 1920- 1929 reached 550,307 with 1928 having the highest at 75,307 arrests” (Volstead). With Mafia members, like Al Capone, taking the cake on headliners, the people of America slowly
“Thus came prohibition to the United States. Middle-class Americans—striving to revitalize and preserve American democracy and to usher in a new era of humanity, achievement, and progress—turned to prohibition as one device to achieve their goals.” (Callow) The Prohibition was a time where in the United States the sale and consumption of alcohol was illegal from 1920-1933. It was the 18th amendment which prohibited alcohol in the United States and it states, “The manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.”
Many people thought that the prohibition laws would be beneficial in the long run, which it did reduce the number of arrests due to drunkenness, but would prove to be a big problem for the economy. The support and glorification for prohibition backfired on the people and the government proving to cause more problems than they could fix. Alcohol sales brought a lot of tax revenue and now that it is against the law to sell any alcohol the country was not getting any money. The evidence shows how important alcohol was to the economy. On top of the economy losing such a successful good, the government had to pay a lot more than what they were receiving for enforcing the law.
How significant was Prohibition in changing the lives of the American people in 1919-1933? Explain your answer to the question. . “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you”. F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘The Great Gatsby’ (1) As early as 7000 BCE, mankind was first acquainted with alcoholic beverages; became an inseparable companion of humanity throughout history, and was praised for being present during joyful and sorrowful times, neglecting the common knowledge that they gave nothing but fraud, ecstasy, and illness when consumed. The Volstead Act was an act of nationwide ban on alcohol, which had a profound and widespread impact on American society.
