Cultural Context: Alcohol Essay

“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today” (PBS, nd). The result was the temperance movement. The Temperance movement was an anti-movement that swept across the country in the 1830s and 40s. The abolitionists tried to show that drinking alcohol was a sin and that the country needed to be cleansed. They called for a prohibition of alcohol. On January 17th, 1920, an amendment to the constitution was passed that banned the making, transporting, and selling of alcohol and other intoxicating beverages.

In 1919, The US ratified the 18th Amendment which is declared illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages. Between from 1920 to 1933 America has promulgated prohibition who drunk because most men drunk in most times even during break time off work. They gradually lost their control and taking abuse, crime on their children. A lot of problems happened in the family like violence, fighting, and the worse thing is the divorce. Drunken men who did not work at all would not be able to afford, provide, and care for their families. America repealed Prohibition for three main reasons during this time: the Volstead Act because it was a law, the act of Congress that helped to prevent people from selling alcohol, illegal but it failed, Progressive Movement because it showed how many serious problems happened behind drinking that affected to life, and social evils of drinking. While there are three main causes, the most significant cause the repeal of Prohibition in America was social evils or consequences of drinking because in (Doc. B) homicides increased which made crime raised and thousands of Americans killed, the scenes of the US government (Doc.D) because the governor violated the law, and depression (Doc. A) because Uncle Sam, the US government worked with gangsters, racketeer, bootlegger, and dope seller.

In the beginning of the Prohibition Era, the supporters of the alcohol ban were met with a pleasing decline in arrest for drunkenness, hospitalizations related to alcohol and the fall of liver related medical problems that were caused by the consumption of alcohol. These statistics seemed to support the tireless campaigning done to prohibit alcohol. This decline in alcohol

Between 1900 and 1913 more Americans began to drink more and more alcohol with the production of beer jumping from 1.2 million to 2 billion gallons; three times more alcohol than the average American drinks now.1 Prohibition was a movement sparked by women since women thought they were the ones who suffered the most from the cause of alcohol and women though that alcohol was a threat to a happy family. Women wanted to pass prohibition because many men would go to saloons and go home and be abusive towards their wives and children. Women and other groups eventually got 46 of the 48 states to ratify the 18th amendment on January 16, 1919.2 The 18th amendment on article one says, "...the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."3 The first article on the 18th amendment is saying that the sale, making, or even bringing liquor into the United States or any of the United States' territory will now be illegal. Prohibition began to show its weakness right away when the United Sates government did not show much support. After the first year of prohibition the American people started to show less support and even led to organized crime. In 1933, the United States Constitution was amended to repeal the 18th amendment in the form of the 21st amendment.4 Even

The concept of prohibition was nothing new in 1919; it was part of the social reform movement that had been growing for nearly a decade, known as the temperance movement. It was similar to the movements of the middle of the 19th century, but differed from the ecclesiastical “Great Awakenings” that had surged periodically through the American colonies since their settling. Although it diverged in scope from these other movements they still shared a similar connection in goal, that of a “Dry” nation. By 1857, thirteen states had laws prohibiting the selling of alcohol within their borders. Following the Civil War, the desire for reform had lost its luster and a general yearning for normalcy gripped the nation. Thus the drive for alcohol prohibition lost most if not all its steam. However, near the turn of the century, it was once again gaining momentum. The growing middle class of the early 20th century introduced the Republic to a new breed of ideals in the form of the Progressive Movement. The Progressives viewed the power of the states as their platform to accomplish their goals. With strong supporters such as future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson they hoped to meet little or no resistance to their plans for the future and they utilized the law to the

The Prohibition Era of the 1920’s was an infamous time for the United States. However, despite the roar and boom or the twenties, prohibition did little to benefit Americans or the country itself. The ban of the make, transportation, and sale of alcohol only caused an increase in crime and decrease in public health and safety with practically no economic benefit.

Prohibition was undertaken to reduce crime, reduce corruption, and solve social problems in America but it failed on all accounts. Prohibition had the exact opposite effect on people than its original purpose was. Instead of removing alcohol from society, Prohibition actually instigated a national drinking spree that held constant until Prohibition was repealed. Felix Von Luckner said, “My observations have convinced me that many fewer would drink were it not illegal” (Von Luckner, 2). He believed that the law against alcohol manufacturing just instigated more drinking. The people during this period in time were so rebellious that they would do the opposite of anything that they were told to do. This had a huge contribution to the failure of Prohibition. Due to the failure of Prohibition, America’s society had fallen spiral to a drinking spree (Batchelor, 1). Many believed that the main cause of the failure of Prohibition was the breakdown of the enforcement agencies. In Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said, “The Prohibition Enforcement Unit has entirely broken down. It is discredited; it has become a joke…” (La Guardia, 2). The Roaring Twenties’ prosperity was lost due to the failure of the Prohibition Enforcement Unit. If the law was stronger and better enforced, Prohibition could have succeeded. This was very detrimental to society because it showed the

January 1920, the opening year of the 18th Amendment that sought banning “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” within the United States and its US territories. Many Americans relate this era with speakeasy, public law breaking, and a public disregard for the establishment of prohibition. The 18th Amendment was the first constitutional amendment that sought to limit the rights of citizens and their rights to drink. This would become an attempt that many would soon come to realize as one of the greatest failures in law enforcement in American History. For if an American wants to drink, those with the American spirit for rebellion will surly offer him one.

The introduction of prohibition in 1919 created numerous opinions and issues in American society. Prohibition had been a long standing issue in America, with temperance

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.'

The 18th amendment was ratified by congress on January 16, 1919 in which the selling and distribution of “intoxicating liquors” was banned. That was the start of what many called the dry decade in the United States. Norman H. Clark’s Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition illustrates the struggles to make the dry decade possible and the consequences that followed it. The 235 page text describes how the Anti-Saloon League was determined to make prohibition possible and the struggles they had to overcome. As well as what directly followed once it was a reality.

Introduction Prohibition stood out as a sore thumb during a time of progressive cultural and economic changes in the 1920s. Prohibition began as a temperance movement in the late 1800s in the United States. The idea of a ban on alcohol became a fast growing idea on the grounds of the United States’ moral fiber, most notably in the southern regions of the country. Prohibition was eventually enacted in 1918 as a temporary measure in order to send more provisions to US forces during World War One. Prohibition was soon instituted on a national and state scale with the introduction of the 18th amendment in 1919.

“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty,

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. The temperance movement had popularized the belief that alcohol was the major cause of most personal and social problems and prohibition was seen as the solution to the nation's poverty, crime, violence, and other ills. Lifelong teetotaler John D. Rockefeller, Jr said, “ When the Eighteenth Amendment was passed I earnestly hoped that it would be generally supported by public opinion and thus the day be hastened when the value to society of men with minds and bodies free from the undermining effects of alcohol would be generally realized”(Latson). Even though Americans hoped

The prohibition was a terrible time for america. A lot changed and alot of people didn't like either, even though so much changed it was for the best of america becuase many didn't know what to do about money or so on. The most important reasons was the progressive movement, the volstead act and the repeal and I'm going to tell you why I thin so. First, The progressive movement was a number of stated thought that drinking was behind more of americas more serious problems. Like corruption, child abuse, crime and other things. Henry Ford saw drinking as a huge drag on the econmony. Drunken workers and absentee workers were not good for american business. Next, was the volstead act and among other provisions the volstead act defined a drink as