absolut Failure

The 1920’s was a time of major social change in the United States. The social changes during this period are reflected in the laws and regulations that were implemented. One of the most prominent examples of this was prohibition. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, or the Volsted act as it is also know, was implemented to eliminate the use of alcohol in the United States. In doing this, the advocates of prohibition hoped to also eradicate the social problems associated with alcohol. “It was an attempt to promote Protestant middle-class culture as a means of imposing order on a disorderly world”(Dumenil 226). However, this goal of keeping social order through not consuming alcohol, was not reached during the years of prohibition, or even the years following it. Alcohol use among Americans did decline, but it was not totally eliminated, and some of the social problems were even greater then before prohibition. Therefore prohibition was not successful in its original purpose. To best understand the reasons behind the failure of prohibition, we have to look at the years before, during, and after prohibition. This will give context to the implementation of the 18th Amendment, as well as show the trends of Americans’ alcohol use and the effects of alcohol on American society.

The early 1900’s were a time of great prosperity in the United States. America was thriving economically, and big cities were booming. However, some Americans thought that this was not a good thing, because of the social problems that came with the urban culture. The “Dry’s”, as Prohibitionists were referred to, saw large cities as providing people with readily available alcohol. This in turn led to an increase in crime, poverty and immorality. During the period of 1911-1915 the average per-capita consumption of alcohol of each American was 2.56 gallons (Kyvig 24). The solution that was proposed was a national prohibition of alcohol. The goal of this was to eliminate drinking in America thus reducing all of the problems associated with it. “The Prohibitionists thought that the sale of liquor was a social crime, that the drinking of liquor was a racial crime, and that the results of liquor were criminal actions”(Sinclair 220). By making alcohol illegal nationally, such as it would be with prohibition, the social problems of America would be fixed.

On January 16, 1920 alcohol became i...

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...ad, it added to the problems it was intended to solve”(Thornton). We can see that prohibition did reduce the amount of alcohol consumed in the United States, but alcohol use was not altogether eliminated. The social problems that were hoped to be addressed were not solved either. The great experiment that was prohibition did not accomplish its goals of solving the social problems of America and eliminating alcohol consumption. But it will always be remembered for causing Americans to reflect on the effects of alcohol on society.

Bibliography

1. Bowen, Ezera. This Fabulous Century. 6 vol. New York:

Time Life Books, 1969.

2. Dumenil, Lynn. Modern Temper: American culture and society in the 1920’s.

New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.

3. Fisher, Irving. Prohibition at its worst. New York:

The Macmillan Company, 1926

4. Kyvig, David E. Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago:

The University of Chicago Press, 1979.

5. Lee, Henry. How Dry We Were: Prohibition revisited. New Jersey:

Prentice Hall Inc, 1963.

6. Sinclair, Andrew. Prohibition: The Era of Excess. Boston:

Little, Brown and Company, 1962.

7. Thornton, Mark. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html