SKU: 58910019425

Prohibition: A Very Short Introduction

Sale price$9.94 Regular price$11.04
Save 10%

Pay in installments of $2.76 with ShopPay, AfterPay and Klarna

Shipping Estimate
USA
  • USA
  • CAN

Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Jul 17 - Jul 22

Promo Codes Available:

For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15

Description

Prohibition: A Very Short IntroductionAmericans have always been a hard drinking people, but from 1920 to 1933 the country went dry. After decades of pressure from rural Protestants such as the hatchet wielding Carry A. Nation and organizations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti Saloon League, the states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Bolstered by the Volstead Act, this amendment made Prohibition law: alcohol could no longer be produced,

Americans have always been a hard-drinking people, but from 1920 to 1933 the country went dry. After decades of pressure from rural Protestants such as the hatchet-wielding Carry A. Nation and organizations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti-Saloon League, the states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Bolstered by the Volstead Act, this amendment made Prohibition law: alcohol could no longer be produced, imported, transported, or sold. This bizarre episode is often humorously recalled, frequently satirized, and usually condemned. The more interesting questions, however, are how and why Prohibition came about, how Prohibition worked (and failed to work), and how Prohibition gave way to strict governmental regulation of alcohol. This book answers these questions, presenting a brief and elegant overview of the Prohibition era and its legacy.

During the 1920s alcohol prices rose, quality declined, and consumption dropped. The black market thrived, filling the pockets of mobsters and bootleggers. Since beer was too bulky to hide and largely disappeared, drinkers sipped cocktails made with moonshine or poor-grade imported liquor. The all-male saloon gave way to the speakeasy, where together men and women drank, smoked, and danced to jazz.

After the onset of the Great Depression, support for Prohibition collapsed because of the rise in gangster violence and the need for revenue at local, state, and federal levels. As public opinion turned, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to repeal Prohibition in 1932. The legalization of beer came in April 1933, followed by the Twenty-first Amendment's repeal of the Eighteenth that December. State alcohol control boards soon adopted strong regulations, and their legacies continue to influence American drinking habits. Soon after, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The alcohol problem had shifted from being a moral issue during the century to a social, cultural, and political one during the campaign for Prohibition, and finally, to a therapeutic one involving individuals. As drinking returned to pre-Prohibition levels, a Neo-Prohibition emerged, led by groups such as Mothers against Drunk Driving, and ultimately resulted in a higher legal drinking age and other legislative measures.

With his unparalleled expertise regarding American drinking patterns, W. J. Rorabaugh provides an accessible synthesis of one of the most important topics in US history, a topic that remains relevant today amidst rising concerns over binge-drinking and alcohol culture on college campuses.


Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/16/2020
ISBN: 9780190280109
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.20lbs
Size: 6.80h x 4.50w x 0.30d
Shipping Notes
  • Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
  • Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
  • Delivery to the USA:
  1. Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
  • If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
  • We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
  • Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
  • To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
  • Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
SKU: 58910019425

Discover Niche Categories That Outsell

Top-Converting Item to Boost Your Average Order

4.4 ★★★★★
Based on 10 reviews
Sort
Highest Rating
Newest First
Oldest First
Product Reviews
A
Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
West Palm Beach, US
★★★★★ 4
Fascinating story and great graphics
Format: Hardcover
Fascinating story of a young girl from Nova Scotia working in the oil sands in a male dominated work force. Great graphics.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2024
S
Verified Purchase
Sandy
Chelsea, US
★★★★★ 5
Great No Fuss Service
Format: Hardcover
Product as advertised and on time.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2026
J
Verified Purchase
JackiBlue
Bozeman, US
★★★★★ 5
Compelling - Beautifully done
Format: Kindle
I was surprised how much I enjoyed reading this. Ms Beaton has done an amazing job of storytelling. So thankful for the recommendation from John Warner - The “BibliOracle” of the Chicago Tribune. Several male members of my family worked in the Tar Sands projects over the last 30 years - mostly on Oil Exploration and the crew management side. But rumors about the rough environment were confirmed in this book. Reading this explains why one important family marriage failed from the “Wild West” behavior that took place there. As Ms Beaton acknowledged, this work provided important income for those who worked the Tar Sands projects. My family included. But the harm to the First Nations People and the environment are just terribly, horribly sad.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2022
A
Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Fort Morgan, US
★★★★★ 5
A human story of how our society operates
Format: Kindle
There's a lot of terms you could use to describe the themes in this book. Capitalism, patriarchy, settler-colonialism, climate change but the book doesn't need to throw these terms around. It just shows them through the eyes of a person who experienced them. There's also a feeling of "there but by the grace of god go I" having been tempted by the possibility of oil work myself during the Great Recession. The story of how our drive for oil eats at our humanity is vital and helps show the cost of how we've structured our society at a personal level. At times funny, heartwarming, and tragic, a fantastically written and drawn work that I have to highly recommend!
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2023
S
Verified Purchase
Stuck in Nova
Natrona Heights, US
★★★★★ 5
An amazing, if sometimes dark, memoir of work, solitude, and taking a pragmatic path in life.
Format: Hardcover
What do you do, when your only viable financial prospects are to move to even more remote, cold, dark and desolate land where you are part of a corporate mining operation dredging sands for valuable resources, living onsite in a company owned dormitory? Beaton recalls all this in her memoir of her post-university time, where she was faced with this decision to either live and work the oil sands, or face a life of financial bondage trying to pay back student loans, a decision we see many of her own countrymen face as their only viable means to survive. If you are familiar with Beaton's comic strip work, you'll see familiar reference to the genesis of it here, but Ducks is a far more serious graphic novel. Both engaging and often times bleak, Ducks gives a wonderful window into the reality of Canada's oil industry, and the humanity of the people, who are nothing more than cogs in a machine, that run it.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2023

recommand products