Prohibition and the Effect on America

After the civil war (1861-1865) the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded. They did not promote moderation or temperance but rather prohibition. Later the Prohibition party was founded in 1867, and as the name indicates it was for prohibition. The party succeeded in getting many communities and states to outlaw producing intoxicating beverages and their greatest success was in 1919.

Young people have been attracted to alcohol since the early 1820’s, and it “...has rattled authorities around the world for centuries” (Clark 5). Through the 1800’s and into the 1900’s, “...anti-saloon activists helped to pass Prohibition in 1919 by circulating pictures of children sneaking alcohol out of taverns” (Clark 5). Teen drinking, however, climbed quickly after World War II and proceeded in an upward motion up into, “...the early 1970’s…[where there was a] successful movement to give 18-year-olds the right to vote” (Clark 6). And with

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

Nebraska became our 36th state to pass the 18th Amendment. This event took place on January 16, 1919. It would have to take more than two-thirds of the Senate, two-thirds of the House of Representatives, and it also had to have three-fourths of the state legislature to approve the 18th Amendment. America would become a dry country. This happened because women and children would get beaten by drunk males that came home from the bar or work. The Volstead Act made beer and wine illegal. This made many people very angry. What were the reasons America changed their mind about Prohibition? America changed its mind about prohibition because of the rise in crime, difficulty with enforcement, and

“America had been awash in drink almost from the start – wading hip-deep in it, swimming in it, and at various times in its history nearly drowning in it.” 1 This quote proves to be correct, embodying American history beginning with the earliest American settlers to the present day. Keeping this fact in mind, how did the Temperance Movement gain enough strength to legally ban the manufacturing, selling, and transportation of alcohol in 1920? Through the determination and stamina of a multitude of factions throughout America from the early to mid 19th century, into the Progressive Era, federal legislation in the form of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America was passed. Beginning in the mid-1800s and

Alongside corruption and women’s efforts playing a large part in the Prohibition movement was violence alcohol consumption harbored. Alcohol led to an increased rate of domestic abuse as well as crimes such as theft, murder, and rape. The American Medical Association, at their annual meeting [Doc B] said, “[Alcohol’s] use in therapeutics, as a tonic, or a stimulant or as a food has not scientific basis… should be discouraged.” The AMA recognized that alcohol was detrimental to human behaviors and therefore should not have been consumed. This idea, one of the many, at the forefront of the prohibition movement led to the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment. Thomas D. West noted the number of dangers alcohol produces. He described his worries

When the Prohibition era in the United States began on January 19, 1920, a few sage observers predicted it would not go well. Certainly, previous attempts to outlaw the use of alcohol in American history had fared poorly. When a Massachusetts town banned the sale of alcohol in 1844, an enterprising tavern owner took to charging patrons for the price of seeing a striped pig—the drinks came free with the price of admission. When Maine passed a strict prohibition law in 1851, the result was not temperance, but resentment among the city's working class and Irish immigrant population. A deadly riot in Portland in 1855 lead to the law's repeal. Now, Prohibition was being implemented on a national scale, and being enshrined in the Constitution no less. What followed was a litany of unintended consequences.

During the early 1900’s America was in its “Gilded Age”. The economy was booming and everyone seemed to be happy from the outside. But, there were many problems going on in the United States. In the factories where most people worked there were corrupt bosses, the people were overworked and there was child labor. The only salvation that these people had was to drink. The workers drank to calm down and feel no pain. But this destroyed families because they were almost constantly drunk. They would sometimes lose their only job because of the drinking. So, a lot of religious groups and many women started the temperance movement. There have been many people who have supported temperance in the past and it dates all the way back to when the Bible was written. Eventually the 18th Amendment was passed on January 26th 1919. This amendment was known as the “Noble Experiment”. This turned out to be a complete failure. This law was impossible to enforce because of the corrupt police and there was alcohol almost everywhere. In this paper I will go over alcohol use, attempts to fight alcohol abuse, and the rise in crime due to the money that could be made in corruption.

Were the anti-saloon league and Women’s Christian temperance movement. The temperance movements were at the strongest in rural areas, they put pressure on state governments to introduce prohibition. They put pressure on them by claiming the Damage to drinker’s health. They also protested that the sale in alcohol produced crime and disorder, poverty and distress,

health and said that by the men going to the saloons it was a risk for

There were organizations in place in the 1800’s to prohibit alcohol in the United States (Levinthal, C.F., 2012, 56). With drinking on the rise, these organizations attempted to make drinking to be done in moderation. Later the organizations changed direction to prohibiting drinking all together. The organization blamed alcohol on the crimes that were being committed. Women were not allowed in places that sold alcohol, so they felt if it was prohibited it would make the men spend more time at home. Disband of alcohol would allow more income for the family, cut down on the one who would drink during lunch. The purpose for prohibition was to cut down on crimes that were supposed to be caused by alcohol drinking. But stopping the sale of alcohol

In the early 1900’s, many Americans, including women and Anti-Saloon activists, were promoting an “alcohol free society”. These activists believed that alcohol was the cause of high crime and other down falls of American society (Okrent, 2010). A group called the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) soon became one of the biggest contributors to Prohibitionists groups. They contributed money and also ideas that would help to make the idea of an alcohol free country, also known as a dry country, a reality. The ASL toured the country discussing their viewpoints with many different types of people in order to attain the American people support. The ASL discussions really reached out to one person in the crowd especially, Wayne B. Wheeler (Okrent, 2010).

On January 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the constitution of the United States of America took effect. The 18th Amendment had been ratified a year earlier, banning “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”(Okrent, 1) within the United States and its territories. This new decade is called the Prohibition. The prohibition is the era of bizarre and engaging images of speakeasies, intoxicated flappers dancing the Charleston, bootleggers, and mobsters protecting illegal trades. Daniel Okrent seeks to explain the build up to the era, passage of the 18th Amendment, the public 's activities in the age of Prohibition, the ultimate repeal of the law by the 21st Amendment, and the final outcomes.

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors. This ushered a period in the American history. This was known as Prohibition. Prohibition was difficult to force during the first decade of the 20th century. Bootlegging is the illegal production and sale of liquor. The increase of bootlegging, speakeasies, and the accompanying rise in gang violence and other crimes led to waning support for Prohibition. In 1933, the Congress had adopted a resolution. They proposed a 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which would repeal the 18th Amendment. The prohibition era came to a close by the end of that year.

Alcohol is America’s primary narcotic drug problem. When one hears of the word “prohibition”, images of the Great Gatsby-era 1920s and the eighteenth amendment most likely come to mind. It was, in fact, the political party so rightfully named the Prohibition Party who was behind the liquor ban movement.