Tuesday, April 29, 2014


By Daniel Orkent

This book provides a detailed political and social description of the rise and fall of America’s “Noble Experiment”, Prohibition.  In a decade that saw the transformation of the United States from a rural to an urban country in tandem with social upheavals that resurrected the KKK and spawned evangelical preachers like Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple MacPherson.

The author posits that alcoholism created so much domestic abuse that women aligned themselves with organizations such as the anti-foreigner KKK to obtain political power needed to ban the sale of intoxicating beverages.   Women got support for their right to vote and to ban alcohol.  Recent immigrants from Germany and Italy both of which have long established traditions of brewing beer and fermenting grapes became scapegoats for increasing xenophobia and anti-Catholicism, spearheaded by the KKK.

The Roaring 20’s saw the confluence of four Constitutional Amendments that changed the political process.  The 16th Amendment allowed for the collection of income taxes, providing an alternate source of revenue to compensate for the loss of taxes on liquor consumption.  Th 17th Amendment allowed for the direct election of Senators, putting more power into the hands of the urban electorate.  The 18th Amendment prohibited intoxicating liquors and the 19th Amendment established women’s suffrage.  In a triumph of political power over Constitutionality, the rural political powers prevented the reapportionment of Congressional districts based on the 1920 Census, thereby solidifying the power of the “drys” in enforcing Prohibition.

The struggle for social and political power led to the ill-advised Prohibition, which enabled certain entrepreneurs to flourish on the edge of the law or clearly outside the law.  Al Capone came to symbolize the quintessential gangster of the Roaring 20’s, popularized in movies over the years.  The FBI also began its own myth-making exploits.

The Homestead Museum docent can learn a great deal about one of the decades highlighted by the public tour.  The aspect of booming prosperity with little thought for the consequences was a highlight of the decade.

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