- Prohibition in the US was enacted via the 18th Amendment in 1919 and banned the sale and manufacture of alcohol nationwide. However, public support swung rapidly away from Prohibition and it was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933 due to issues like corruption, crime, and economic impacts of the Great Depression. The rapid changes in public opinion on Prohibition demonstrate how policy views can shift quickly in response to social and political phenomena.

1. • A test for national democracy - a variety
of people can steamroll the system to
change the government
• Unveils corruption in politics
• Demonstrates a phenomenon wherein
public opinion can swing back very
quickly
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture17.html

2.  America thrusted in favor of Prohibition in a short
period of time and pulled away from it rather quickly
 both of these phenomena happened in a similar way
 American policy makers and their constituents had
spent decades finding it acceptable to tweak alcohol
policy as a way to limit the social ills of alcohol
 in the early 20th century, a new discourse of
prohibition became popular and this cue became
mimicked by more and more policy makers, creating a
rapid support for a drastic policy. It was so drastic that
it took a constitutional amendment, the only
amendment to deny Americans individual rights -
ironic because it’s a time when civil liberties are
expanding

3.  President Obama ran explicitly on a promise to reform health care.
For the first few months, this policy was moving pretty smoothly.
 Tea Party Movt - small and vocal group began speaking out against
about these policies in town hall meetings and a group of influential
policy makers and members of the media repeated their complaints
 within 6 months, Americans moved from being unsatisfied with their
health care costs to significantly more satisfied than they’d been in
over a decade. likewise for the first time in over a decade the number
of people who think that the govt should provide healthcare dropped
under 50% (Gallup)

4.  most reform organizations
approved of limiting, not
eliminating, tended to be directed
toward “undesirables” (AA, NA,
Irish, etc.)
 Benjamin Rush - believed that
moderation in drink was highly
beneficial to individuals and
society
 Second Great Awakening -
increased emphasis on reform and
human improvement,
environment shapes who people
are - take alcohol out of the
equation and you can better
people.
 American Temperance Society -
1826

6.  investigative
 problems w prohibition:
shirking, corruption,
rebellion against the law
 recommendation - derived
from Scandinavian
dispensing system - take out
the profit motive - profits
drive the industry, who drive
the public to vote. the govt
should decide who gets
alcohol and who doesn’t - the
state would dispense alcohol
- doesn’t go along well with a
moral crusade

7.  domestic abuse and bad husbands resulted from
alcohol consumption, concern for children, women in
charge of finances - men were drinking away money
The "Ladies of Logan"
sing hymns in front of
bars in aid of the
temperance movement
Copyright 1997 State
Historical Society of
Wisconsin

8.  By and large, Prohibition represented the desires of the
Anglo-Saxon establishment. The typical prohibitionist was:
 A rural or small-town inhabitant
 Middle class
 Anglo-Saxon
 Evangelical Protestant
 Fearful of African-Americans, immigrants, Jews, and
Catholics
 Prohibitionists had various motivations for campaigning
against alcohol. Most believed that drinking liquor was
immoral. Others wanted to take away the power of the
urban political machines. Still others used the movement as
a springboard for their personal political ambitions.
 WCTU, Anti-Saloon League

9.  Anti-Saloon League -
carried a hatchet - loved
her popularity - ended up
on vaudeville
 vote as you pray -
anything your minister
tells you is how you
should act
 people pushing for
prohibition are pietistic
religions - how you live in
everyday life has a moral
meaning

11.  The entry of America into World War I aided greatly
the cause of prohibition.
 War time hysteria against all things foreign linked
prohibition to patriotism. Prohibitionist
propaganda characterized the liquor industry as
foreign-controlled and pointed out that German-
Americans owned and managed many of the
nation's breweries.
 Centralization of government power. During WWI,
the federal government took over railroads and
factories, passed a conscription act, and curtailed
liberty and free speech. As an outgrowth of this
centralization of power in Washington, D. C., many
Americans increasingly viewed the federal
government as the upholder of American morality,
temperance, and sobriety. In their minds, the federal
government should limit individual freedoms for
the sake of higher social responsibilities.

12.  18th Amendment
prohibited the
manufacture or sale of
alcoholic beverages
within the boundaries of
the United States.
 Volstead Act of 1919, also
known as the National
Prohibition Enforcement
Act, defined an alcoholic
beverage as one with an
alcoholic content greater
than 0.5 percent.

16.  Nucky Johnson – “Boss of
the Boardwalk”
 Atlantic City - thrives on
Prohibition bc it was
based on leisure
 idealized resort town,
became a middle class
resort town bc it was so
close to Philadelphia
 already a system of
corruption in place for
supporting illegal
activities when
prohibition was enacted

18. In 1919, the sale of “intoxicating liquors” was banned. An end to Prohibition became a campaign issue for Franklin
Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) during his first run for office in 1932. On this cover, a smiling F.D.R. watches as the
Republicans’ “1920 model” gets a kick from the Democratic donkey, which is fed by votes. The song’s lyrics grew
serious as they welcomed the demise of bootlegging and mobsters who had profited illegally during the liquor ban.
Reproduction restricted due to copyright.
L.E. Benner, music, and words. “Good-Bye Prohibition.” Minneapolis: Standard Publishing, 1932. Music Division,
Library of Congress (48)

19.  21st Amendment
 diverse factions oppose prohibition
immediately
 self-interested brewers, distillers, and
unions, libertarians, and advocates of
states’ rights
 crime erupted with prohibition
 women and progressive reformers
change their minds (including
Rockefeller)
 despite support for Prohibition, Hoover
(Quaker) agreed to investigate it
 catastrophic event
 like WWI, the stock market crash and he
Depression created an urgency and surge
of support to change the amendment -
needs the money from the taxes on
alcohol, need the jobs that liquor making
brings, farmers could produce grain
needed to make liquor, needs the solace
that it provides people

21.  A Dr Seuss cartoon from
1942, attacking the "drys"
who wanted to use the
Second World War as an
excuse to reinstate
Prohibition. "Aunt
Carrie" is a reference to
Carrie Nation, the turn of
the century prohibition
activist known for taking
a hatchet to bars and
saloons. The camel was
used by opponents as a
symbol of prohibition
groups (the "drys") such
as the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union
(WCTU) and the Anti-
Saloon league.
 Cartoon from The Dr.
Seuss Collection in the
Mandeville Special
Collections Library at the
University of California,
San Diego (link opens new
window)