Prohibition: Thirteen Years that Changed AmericaOn the stroke of midnight on January 16, 1920, America went dry. For the next thirteen years the 18th Amendment to the Constitution would specifically deny every citizen the right to buy or sell alcoholic drink. Those thirteen years were to change America forever: instead of regulating social behavior and eliminating the scourge of "the Devil's brew, " Prohibition incited Americans to bend or break the law by virtually any means possible. In these pages, Edward Behr traces the rise of the Temperance movement from Colonial times onward. Indeed, pioneer America was a free-wheeling, hard-drinking country. Whiskey was so plentiful it was often used for legal - and illegal - tender. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the early years of the twentieth, various crusading forces, some well-meaning, some hypocritical, were increasingly demanding an end to intemperance and the abolition of all alcoholic beverages. Between 1920 and 1933, they succeeded. Here is the full, rollicking story of those thirteen years, taking us back to the Jazz Age and its flappers, to the "beautiful and the damned" who drank their lives away in speakeasies; to the Saint Valentine's Day massacre, and to the bootleggers, rumrunners, and high-living gangsters who flagrantly and defiantly flouted the law; to a lady from a Kansas City knitting circle who single-handedly axed a saloon to splinters; to teetotaler Henry Ford's Detroit, where Ford had homes searched to make sure his workers were dry. And, for the first time, Prohibition reveals the full story of George Remus, lawyer turned kingpin of the bootleggers, whose influence reached into the highest echelons of government. |
Contents
I | 1 |
II | 7 |
IV | 21 |
V | 35 |
VI | 45 |
VII | 63 |
VIII | 77 |
IX | 91 |
XII | 129 |
XIII | 147 |
XIV | 161 |
XVI | 175 |
XVII | 195 |
XVIII | 209 |
XIX | 221 |
XX | 237 |
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Common terms and phrases
Al Capone Al Smith alcohol American Anti-Saloon League ASL's attorney became beer Big Bill bootleggers bosses bottle brewers campaign Capone Chicago Cincinnati Enquirer claimed Coast Guard Congress Conners conviction corrupt court crime crusaders Daugherty Daugherty's Death Valley Farm Democratic distilleries distillers Dodge drink drug drunkards election Elston gallons gang George Remus German German-American hard liquor Harding's Haynes Hotel House huge Imogene Imogene's increasingly Izzy Izzy Einstein jail Jess Smith Johnny Torrio judge jury knew later law enforcement lawyer lobby mayor million moral murder Nan Britton never officials Ohio party police political politicians President prison Prohibition agents Prohibition Bureau Prohibition's Prohibitionist prominent prosecution raid Remus told Remus's Republican rum-running rumrunners saloon keepers sell Senate ships Sibbald speakeasies Taft Temperance Thompson tion town TRUESDALE turned underworld Volstead Act vote Warren Harding Washington Wayne Wheeler WCTU whiskey Willebrandt wine women wrote York