Prohibition and United States Society in 1920's

Prohibition and United States Society in 1920's

Prohibition was the legal ban on the manufacture and sale of alcohol.

It was introduced in 1919 and was viewed as the answer to many of

America's problems.

It was thought that the end of alcohol in America would spark a new

and greater society in America. People believed that it would reduce

crime, drunkenness, violence and that it would reduce families in

poverty because the men would not go out spending all the money on

'alcohol.'

With much pressure from groups such as the, 'Anti Saloon League,' and

the 'Women's Christian's Temperance Union. These two groups both

helped convince congress to pass the 18th amendment, prohibition.

For a few years it looked like prohibition was working. Crime and

violence was down and the rates of alcohol consumption had rapidly

reduced, then everything started to go wrong and the consumption of

alcohol increased.

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Per Capita Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages (Gallons of Pure

Alcohol) 1910-1929.

Source: Clark Warburton, The Economic Results of Prohibition

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(New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 23-26, 72.

Before Prohibition was introduced a vast majority of Americas

population enjoyed drinking. So naturally when prohibition was

introduced there were a lot of unhappy people in America.

Some of the public refused to conform to the new ways of prohibition

so ex-saloon owners created places called speakeasies. This was the

common name for a saloon or bar for the duration of prohibition. The

owners of the speakeasies would either import alcohol ...

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The idea of this noble experiment was ultimately to stop the men

drinking away their lives and money and to spend more time with their

families. But as this was the time of the boom and people where doing

away with all the old ways of life more women became drinkers and so

now it wasn't just the men in speakeasies, it was the women as well.

When the county hit economic depression it looked to be in trouble but

then the newly elected president in 1932 called Franklin D. Roosevelt

promised to do away with prohibition and so he did.

Prohibition, described as the noble experiment, was a failure. It made

a growing and booming economy turn into a corrupt and dangerous one,

which eventually led to the countries demise.

If it were not for Roosevelt, then who knows what kind of state

America would be in today.