Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed AmericaSkyhorse, 2011 M05 1 - 288 pages From the bestselling author of The Last Emperor comes this rip-roaring history of the government’s attempt to end America’s love affair with liquor—which failed miserably. On January 16, 1920, America went dry. For the next thirteen years, the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the making, selling, or transportation of “intoxicating liquors,” heralding a new era of crime and corruption on all levels of society. Instead of eliminating alcohol, Prohibition spurred more drinking than ever before. Formerly law-abiding citizens brewed moonshine, became rum- runners, and frequented speakeasies. Druggists, who could dispense “medicinal quantities” of alcohol, found their customer base exploding overnight. So many people from all walks of life defied the ban that Will Rogers famously quipped, “Prohibition is better than no liquor at all.” Here is the full, rollicking story of those tumultuous days, from the flappers of the Jazz Age and the “beautiful and the damned” who drank their lives away in smoky speakeasies to bootlegging gangsters—Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone—and the notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Edward Behr paints a portrait of an era that changed the country forever. |
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Al Capone Al Smith alcohol American Anti-Saloon League ASL’s attorney became become beer Big Bill bootleggers bosses bottle brewers campaign Capone Chicago Cincinnati Enquirer Coast Guard Congress Conners conviction corrupt court crime Daugherty Daugherty’s Death Valley Farm Democratic distillers Dodge drinking drunkards election Elston gallons gang George Remus German German-American hard liquor Harding’s Haynes Hotel huge Imogene Imogene’s increasingly issue Izzy Izzy Einstein jail Jess Smith Johnny Torrio judge jury Justice Department knew later law enforcement lawyer lobby mayor million moral murder Nan Britton National never officials Ohio operations 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 saloon keepers sell Senate ships Sibbald speakeasies Taft Temperance Thompson town TRUESDALE turned underworld Volstead Act vote Washington Wayne Wheeler WCTU whiskey Willebrandt wine women wrote York York’s