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Prohibition: A Concise History
Americans have always been a hard-drinking people, but from 1920 to 1933 the country went dry. After decades of pressure from rural Protestants such as the hatchet-wielding Carry A. Nation and organizations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti-Saloon League, the states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Bolstered by the Volstead Act, this amendment made Prohibition alcohol could no longer be produced, imported, transported, or sold. This bizarre episode is often 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 and its legacy.
During the 1920s alcohol prices rose, quality declined, and consumption dropped. The black market thrived, filling the pockets of mobsters and bootleggers. Since beer was too bulky to hide and largely disappeared, drinkers sipped cocktails made with moonshine or poor-grade imported liquor. The all-male saloon gave way to the speakeasy, where together men and women drank, smoked, and danced to jazz.
After the onset of the Great Depression, support for Prohibition collapsed because of the rise in gangster violence and the need for revenue at local, state, and federal levels. As public opinion turned, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to repeal Prohibition in 1932. The legalization of beer came in April 1933, followed by the Twenty-first Amendment's repeal of the Eighteenth that December. State alcohol control boards soon adopted strong regulations, and their legacies continue to influence American drinking habits. Soon after, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The alcohol problem had shifted from being a moral issue during the nineteenth century to a social, cultural, and political one during the campaign for Prohibition, and finally, to a therapeutic one involving individuals. As drinking returned to pre-Prohibition levels, a Neo-Prohibition emerged, led by groups such as Mothers against Drunk Driving, and ultimately resulted in a higher legal
drinking age and other legislative measures.
With his unparalleled expertise regarding American drinking patterns, W. J. Rorabaugh provides an accessible synthesis of one of the most important topics in US history, a topic that remains relevant today amidst rising concerns over binge-drinking and alcohol culture on college campuses.
During the 1920s alcohol prices rose, quality declined, and consumption dropped. The black market thrived, filling the pockets of mobsters and bootleggers. Since beer was too bulky to hide and largely disappeared, drinkers sipped cocktails made with moonshine or poor-grade imported liquor. The all-male saloon gave way to the speakeasy, where together men and women drank, smoked, and danced to jazz.
After the onset of the Great Depression, support for Prohibition collapsed because of the rise in gangster violence and the need for revenue at local, state, and federal levels. As public opinion turned, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to repeal Prohibition in 1932. The legalization of beer came in April 1933, followed by the Twenty-first Amendment's repeal of the Eighteenth that December. State alcohol control boards soon adopted strong regulations, and their legacies continue to influence American drinking habits. Soon after, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The alcohol problem had shifted from being a moral issue during the nineteenth century to a social, cultural, and political one during the campaign for Prohibition, and finally, to a therapeutic one involving individuals. As drinking returned to pre-Prohibition levels, a Neo-Prohibition emerged, led by groups such as Mothers against Drunk Driving, and ultimately resulted in a higher legal
drinking age and other legislative measures.
With his unparalleled expertise regarding American drinking patterns, W. J. Rorabaugh provides an accessible synthesis of one of the most important topics in US history, a topic that remains relevant today amidst rising concerns over binge-drinking and alcohol culture on college campuses.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 24, 2020
From 1920 to 1933, the Volstead Act banned the production, sale, and distribution of alcoholic drinks. The American Prohibition was a part of a global effort to ban liquors and other drugs, which gained support in 1900s due to rising concerns about public health, addiction, and family problems.
Like everywhere else, in the States it was a disaster. Indeed, when the 18th amendment was adopted in 1920, some Americans stopped drinking, and the overall consumption of liquors in the 20s dropped significantly. Alcohol, however, did not disappear.
The Prohibition fostered bootlegging gangsters, and changed the nature of alcohol consumption. The all-male saloons gave place to the speakeasies, where – with a code word or proper introduction – everyone could get a drink. Police was paid to look away. Moonshine maimed and killed thousands,while bootleggers accumulated fortunes. Corruption, hypocrisy, and organized crime flourished. The Government was deprived of alcohol taxes.
In 1933, strict regulations replaced the Volstead Act, and since then state governments have punished drunk drivers, limited sales, and imposed high alcohol taxes.
W J Rorabaugh’s history addresses several important topics such as how a religious-temperance movement for the stoppage of whisky abuse turned into a whole political crusade for banning all liquor consumption, the role of women in the Prohibition movement, the effect of immigrants, and what happened during the dry years that made Americans change their minds.
Rorabaugh’s work is concise, but nevertheless, informative and well-written. For me, it was an interesting addition to Last Call:The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (highly recommendable, brilliantly written, and detailed study of the Prohibition). Four stars.
Like everywhere else, in the States it was a disaster. Indeed, when the 18th amendment was adopted in 1920, some Americans stopped drinking, and the overall consumption of liquors in the 20s dropped significantly. Alcohol, however, did not disappear.
The Prohibition fostered bootlegging gangsters, and changed the nature of alcohol consumption. The all-male saloons gave place to the speakeasies, where – with a code word or proper introduction – everyone could get a drink. Police was paid to look away. Moonshine maimed and killed thousands,while bootleggers accumulated fortunes. Corruption, hypocrisy, and organized crime flourished. The Government was deprived of alcohol taxes.
In 1933, strict regulations replaced the Volstead Act, and since then state governments have punished drunk drivers, limited sales, and imposed high alcohol taxes.
W J Rorabaugh’s history addresses several important topics such as how a religious-temperance movement for the stoppage of whisky abuse turned into a whole political crusade for banning all liquor consumption, the role of women in the Prohibition movement, the effect of immigrants, and what happened during the dry years that made Americans change their minds.
Rorabaugh’s work is concise, but nevertheless, informative and well-written. For me, it was an interesting addition to Last Call:The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (highly recommendable, brilliantly written, and detailed study of the Prohibition). Four stars.
September 8, 2018
Too short to summarize, but a fun read. I'd have liked some sense of numbers in a few places ("some cars were intercepted"), and I would love to have Rorabaugh write about the organized crime legacy of Prohibition.
September 1, 2018
I love short, concise nonfiction like this. Even though it’s short! There is plenty of depth and interesting details included. A few of the nuggets that are notable for me:
- single issue lobbying groups started with the dry movement, especially the idea of not allying yourself with a single party
- interesting how other issues like taxes, war, social problems, racial and immigration issues were all wrapped up into the prohibition story
- helped me understand the origin and intent of legally requiring a 3 tier distribution system for alcohol
- interesting note that prohibition supporters were using “science-based” arguments for opposing alcohol. 100 years later, we know more but maybe aren’t much wiser about alcohol.
- single issue lobbying groups started with the dry movement, especially the idea of not allying yourself with a single party
- interesting how other issues like taxes, war, social problems, racial and immigration issues were all wrapped up into the prohibition story
- helped me understand the origin and intent of legally requiring a 3 tier distribution system for alcohol
- interesting note that prohibition supporters were using “science-based” arguments for opposing alcohol. 100 years later, we know more but maybe aren’t much wiser about alcohol.
April 19, 2023
I normally don't find these "concise history" books fulfilling to read but I keep choosing them for some topics. And with this one on Prohibition, the author finds the right balance between brevity, detail, and most critically, the right kind of detail. Where other books have strayed too much from the path of focus, this one remains over the target for the duration. Probably due to the level of attention put forth to create the concise but detailed work, sentences (not the book, of course) are dense and cram a lot of information into each bite so the reading can be a bit slow-going in order to digest it all. Finally, very little analysis can be found here but that's what you're probably looking for in a "concise history" book.
July 19, 2019
I no longer remember why I picked this up. In case of emergency forgetfulness, resort to default assumption that it came highly recommended by Tyler Cowen at some point. I found this to be a very concise history of the Prohibition, one that was written by W.J.Rorabaugh. Anything else would be a spoiler.
Notes
Sugarcane molasses from W.Indies went to USA, converted to Rum, shipped to Africa traded for slaves, sold in W.Indies for molasses. British blockaded Sugarcane Rum, so USA got whiskey-making habit out of corn/rye from Irish/Scottish. Became a patriotic drink during/after the Revolution, and quickly became an unpatriotic drink during WW1 against the Germans. More on this later.
Whiskey domestically made became way cheaper than Rum with import duties on molasses. After lobbying, a whiskey tax resulted in the whiskey rebellion and eventually repeal of the tax. Farmers spread out into corn-rich regions like Kentucky/Ohio and without a way to market all that corn, started distilling more spirits. Alcohol became 10% of economy in beginning 1800s.
People were perpetually buzzed. Cheaper than coffee/tea, safer than water because killed germs, so people drank continually through the day with every meal. Echoes a Brad Harris episode on the History of Coffee, and how it began, so long.
Evangelical Protestants led the dry-movement, linking alcohol to gambling, prostitution, abuse, violence. Tried licensing, then prohibiting, but only reduced revenues and pushed things underground. Didn't learn from these mistakes eventually in 1920. More on this later.
Irish and Germans started arriving into East Coast and MidWest respectively with their Catholic and Lutheran lack of taboo for alcohol. Evangelicals wanted to impose their practices of abstinence, Sabbath etc on society. Immigrants resented an imposition on their local practices. What about Germany saying that today though?
Civil war needed revenue so had to legalize alcohol in order to tax it. Distillers were shady while German beer brewers cheerfully paid tax astutely realizing that permanent taxation was the road to legalization. Anti-immigrant sentiment reduced in Civil war because 25% were Irish/German immigs. USA turned from Whiskey to Beer in its aftermath. This would reverse during the Prohibition. Moral: Trust the Germans when all is good, and demonize them when it isn't.
Anti-slavery and anti-alcohol showed up at same time and reformers chose latter because it was not just restricted to the South. Decades later, with Germans gaining political power, while dry and wet clashed, a group united them as finding slavery more abhorrent and founded the Republican party. Did Germans/Irish find slavery abhorrent only for noble sentiments? Book reveals how they avoided settling in the south because they could not compete with the cheap slave labor for jobs.
German-American alliance key funders of wet campaign. When WW1 broke out, funding from this group became unpatriotic at first and illegal next. Wet campaign died during the war, initially as moral fervor that men are dying in Europe and we can’t sacrifice this demonjuice. Wilson eventually passed prohibition a month after armistice.
When things are banned, prices rise, they go underground, and come back in cheaper more dangerous forms. Harris Act of 1914 banned Opium, gave rise to Heroin. War on Cocaine in 70s gave rise to Crack. Prohibition made bulky beer cumbersome and favored moonshine, spirits that were cut badly.
After War, USD became really strong and made grain export markets unprofitable for them, so farmers started liquefying corn/rye for spirits. Ecosystem set up for distribution by gangsters, greasing of palms.
Whiskey Sixes were souped up 6-cylinder Buicks and Studebakers with springs and storage to evade police roadblocks and hijacks. Southern drivers would race them to test out, and this became NASCAR.
Ku Klux Klan with religio-nut beginnings became scourge of wets, raid and pillage. Lead Prohibition agent employed 100s of Klansmen to crack down on wets.
Smuggling became high-tech. Staking out shipyards that built CoastGuard ships and then studying specs to make faster better boats that could evade them. While most were being shady, the most successful smuggler was Bill McCoy who refused to cut liquor, honored commitments etc, therefore good stuff was called the Real McCoy, a mark of quality.
Charles Walgreens small-time pharmacist owned 9 stores. Prohibition allowed medical liquor through pharmacies, he became fabulously successful and quickly ramped up to 525 stores in Chicago.
Strange push-pull of alcohol and social liberalism. When saloon culture was rampant, women’s groups were pro-prohibition blaming alcohol for their useless abusive husbands in saloons where they were not allowed. Also, became anti-slavery because alcohol blamed for white women raped by blacks. After women’s suffrage, quickly drove prohibition. After prohibition, speakeasies more popular than saloons, allowed women because their presence made it less likely for violence and raids. Then women were anti-prohibition suddenly, along with more liberal sexually. Whites/Blacks started drinking together, would never have happened. Young people didn’t live through the progressive era’s moral zeal that led to prohibition, so never understood it, and rebelled.
Notes
Sugarcane molasses from W.Indies went to USA, converted to Rum, shipped to Africa traded for slaves, sold in W.Indies for molasses. British blockaded Sugarcane Rum, so USA got whiskey-making habit out of corn/rye from Irish/Scottish. Became a patriotic drink during/after the Revolution, and quickly became an unpatriotic drink during WW1 against the Germans. More on this later.
Whiskey domestically made became way cheaper than Rum with import duties on molasses. After lobbying, a whiskey tax resulted in the whiskey rebellion and eventually repeal of the tax. Farmers spread out into corn-rich regions like Kentucky/Ohio and without a way to market all that corn, started distilling more spirits. Alcohol became 10% of economy in beginning 1800s.
People were perpetually buzzed. Cheaper than coffee/tea, safer than water because killed germs, so people drank continually through the day with every meal. Echoes a Brad Harris episode on the History of Coffee, and how it began, so long.
Evangelical Protestants led the dry-movement, linking alcohol to gambling, prostitution, abuse, violence. Tried licensing, then prohibiting, but only reduced revenues and pushed things underground. Didn't learn from these mistakes eventually in 1920. More on this later.
Irish and Germans started arriving into East Coast and MidWest respectively with their Catholic and Lutheran lack of taboo for alcohol. Evangelicals wanted to impose their practices of abstinence, Sabbath etc on society. Immigrants resented an imposition on their local practices. What about Germany saying that today though?
Civil war needed revenue so had to legalize alcohol in order to tax it. Distillers were shady while German beer brewers cheerfully paid tax astutely realizing that permanent taxation was the road to legalization. Anti-immigrant sentiment reduced in Civil war because 25% were Irish/German immigs. USA turned from Whiskey to Beer in its aftermath. This would reverse during the Prohibition. Moral: Trust the Germans when all is good, and demonize them when it isn't.
Anti-slavery and anti-alcohol showed up at same time and reformers chose latter because it was not just restricted to the South. Decades later, with Germans gaining political power, while dry and wet clashed, a group united them as finding slavery more abhorrent and founded the Republican party. Did Germans/Irish find slavery abhorrent only for noble sentiments? Book reveals how they avoided settling in the south because they could not compete with the cheap slave labor for jobs.
German-American alliance key funders of wet campaign. When WW1 broke out, funding from this group became unpatriotic at first and illegal next. Wet campaign died during the war, initially as moral fervor that men are dying in Europe and we can’t sacrifice this demonjuice. Wilson eventually passed prohibition a month after armistice.
When things are banned, prices rise, they go underground, and come back in cheaper more dangerous forms. Harris Act of 1914 banned Opium, gave rise to Heroin. War on Cocaine in 70s gave rise to Crack. Prohibition made bulky beer cumbersome and favored moonshine, spirits that were cut badly.
After War, USD became really strong and made grain export markets unprofitable for them, so farmers started liquefying corn/rye for spirits. Ecosystem set up for distribution by gangsters, greasing of palms.
Whiskey Sixes were souped up 6-cylinder Buicks and Studebakers with springs and storage to evade police roadblocks and hijacks. Southern drivers would race them to test out, and this became NASCAR.
Ku Klux Klan with religio-nut beginnings became scourge of wets, raid and pillage. Lead Prohibition agent employed 100s of Klansmen to crack down on wets.
Smuggling became high-tech. Staking out shipyards that built CoastGuard ships and then studying specs to make faster better boats that could evade them. While most were being shady, the most successful smuggler was Bill McCoy who refused to cut liquor, honored commitments etc, therefore good stuff was called the Real McCoy, a mark of quality.
Charles Walgreens small-time pharmacist owned 9 stores. Prohibition allowed medical liquor through pharmacies, he became fabulously successful and quickly ramped up to 525 stores in Chicago.
Strange push-pull of alcohol and social liberalism. When saloon culture was rampant, women’s groups were pro-prohibition blaming alcohol for their useless abusive husbands in saloons where they were not allowed. Also, became anti-slavery because alcohol blamed for white women raped by blacks. After women’s suffrage, quickly drove prohibition. After prohibition, speakeasies more popular than saloons, allowed women because their presence made it less likely for violence and raids. Then women were anti-prohibition suddenly, along with more liberal sexually. Whites/Blacks started drinking together, would never have happened. Young people didn’t live through the progressive era’s moral zeal that led to prohibition, so never understood it, and rebelled.
March 6, 2023
A very short book on prohibition. It is, as the cover says, a concise history.
I was looking specifically for information regarding speakeasies for research purposes but this book has a few chapters thar held my attention definitively. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Prohibition’ chapter and the ‘Legacies’ chapter.
I was looking specifically for information regarding speakeasies for research purposes but this book has a few chapters thar held my attention definitively. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Prohibition’ chapter and the ‘Legacies’ chapter.
August 19, 2018
Excellent political and policy examination of the almost two century-long push for temperance and prohibition in the United States. Includes details about temperance and anti-alcohol efforts in other nations. A good concise history!
August 24, 2018
Short and to the point. The very interesting story of the events that led to the prohibition laws of the USA, the effects the laws had on American economy, society and politics, and the eventual repeal of the 18th amendment.
March 7, 2024
There’s so much information packed into this short book that at times it feels more like a reference book. That made it kind of slow reading, but still, I learned a lot and will be revisiting parts of it to solidify my understanding. What a weird time in the history of our country.
February 17, 2025
Concise and informative. Also quite interesting to read about the dynamic of prohibition and how it fit in with abolition, women's rights, political parties, the temperance movement, etc.
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October 22, 2018
Dense, and necessarily somewhat abbreviated, but quite interesting, particularily on the context in which prohibition arose.
January 8, 2023
Excellent. Very well-written, concise, informative.
August 27, 2023
Interesting history. Concise and easy to read.
February 2, 2025
Excellent and thorough account of alcohol prohibition in the States.
December 4, 2018
Interesting facts seems to repeat at times
Some of the stories were fascinating. Some seemed to repeat from previous chapters. Too many acronyms for sure. I couldn’t keep them straight. Still worth a read but could probably have been even shorter.
Some of the stories were fascinating. Some seemed to repeat from previous chapters. Too many acronyms for sure. I couldn’t keep them straight. Still worth a read but could probably have been even shorter.
September 9, 2019
Really fascinating material. So many relevant similarities to current conversations around regulating, taxing, banning various substances. Concise is a good word for the book -- it packs a lot into just a few pages. Pretty dry and not particularly well-written, but very to the point and fun.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews