Prohibition Causes

The Causes, Effects, and On-going Results of Prohibition in America

In the wake of World War 1, the Roaring Twenties was an era for celebration, renewal, and a number of glamourized activities. Between flappers, the Charleston, organized sports, and jazz music, the people of the twenties lived joyous lives—until one of the most common activities came to a legal standstill on January sixteenth, 1920. Defined as the historical 1920-1933’s ban on the manufacture, storage, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of intoxicating beverages, the Prohibition marked the beginning of a corrupted decade for the American people, in which immense change and frequent debate ruled over achieving the American dream (Wikipedia). While the topic of

Between the various causes, consequences, and eventual results, the prohibition was a collection of faults varying in severity, which not only affected the American people of

In the twentieth century, as yet another attempt to better the country, many abolitionists and organizations, including The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the later Anti-Saloon League (ASL), began to label alcohol as an “equally great evil to be eradicated” (Lerner). First proposing moderation and support groups, and then ultimately demanding that local, state, and national governments ban alcohol entirely, these organizations created an air of debate in America; however, they both gained significant progress. The WCTU, under the leadership of Frances Willard, “had lobbied for local laws restricting alcohol” (Lerner) and, grace to the recent addition of scientific research on alcoholism in the 1920s, had opted to use a scientific, fact-based approach to encourage temperance in schools (“The Rise and Fall of Prohibition”). As for the ASL, under the shrewd direction of Wayne Wheeler, it became the most successful single issue lobbying organization in American history, “willing to form alliances with any and all constituencies that shared its sole goal: a constitutional amendment that would ban the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol” (Lerner). In addition, after the Civil War, millions of immigrants—mostly from Germany and other European countries—crowded into the nation 's cities. This caused brewing and