Prohibition in the United States 1920 - 1933
by Dmitry Zavlin
2009
Table of Contents
Preface Personal Statement
1. Events Leading to the Prohibition
1.1. Quotation of the 18th Amendment
1.2. Political and Social Issues at that Time
2. The Prohibition
2.1. Problems of the Volstead Act
2.1.1. Weak Presidents
2.1.2. Corrupt Prohibition Agents
2.1.3. Impracticability and imprecise laws
2.2. Rise of Crime
2.2.1. Illicit Distillation
2.2.2. Bootlegging
2.2.3. Al Capone and the Mafia
2.3. Influence on the Socializing Culture
2.4. End of Prohibition
2.4.1. Economic Downfall in the 1930s
2.4.2. Quotation of the 21st Amendment
2.5. Prohibition in Film and Literature
2.5.1. “The Great Gatsby” (1925)
2.5.2. “Some Like it Hot” (1959)
3. Strict Alcohol and Drug Laws Today?
Sources
Preface
The following lines are designed to explain why I chose “Prohibition in the United States” as my topic for this research paper. It was not the law or the amendment that caught my interest but rather how America and its society developed under this statute.
The beginning of the 20th century is considered a time of technological revolutions with Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T and the beginning of Hollywood film studios, for instance. So maybe, after reading this text, you will get a less biased view of this era with regards to the fact that prohibition was the breeding ground for organized crime and that America’s materialistic life-style pursuing the American Dream was the main cause of the Depression.
On that matter, some historians concentrate on national and state politics of the 1920s, others on the mafia, while others analyze 1920s literature and media. In the little space I have I will try my best to present a little bit of every aspect of that decade, everything from the view of alcohol prohibition.
1.
The whole era in US history that is now known as the “Prohibition” began with a simple piece of paper, the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, that was ratified by the majority of states and certified in January 1919. Even though this amendment did not explicitly prohibit an average citizen from possessing and consuming alcoholic beverages, it was the death sentence for all manufacturers and stores in the liquor industry, which made it quite difficult to have access to strong drinks. However, at that point, the US government did not have the possibilities or rights to actively enforce this amendment or prosecute its violators. Therefore, despite of President Wilson’s veto, the Volstead Act (named after the person who designed it, Andrew Volstead) was signed on October 28, 1919 and it “established the enforcement mechanisms and penalties for violations of the federal laws”. The Volstead act gave law enforcement the rights it needed to make prohibition work and went into effect on January 16, 1920.
From now on, all laws based on these two legislations will be called merely “Prohibition”.
1.1.
The Eighteen Amendment to the US Constitution:
Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article 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.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
1.2.
The idea of alcohol prohibition was not a plan of the 20th century. Looking back through the history of America the historian Heather Kauffman states that its roots were in the 1750s when the US consisted of a few British colonies. Back then, people believed that alcohol was evil
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 03.12.2015
ISBN: 978-3-7396-2621-5
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