Roaring 20's and the Jazz Age
Prohibition
Define
Prohibition was a period in which the manufacture, sell, and transportation of alcohol/liquor was illegal. Nationwide prohibition did not begin in the United States until 1920, when the 18th amendemt of the constitution went into effect, and was repealed in 1933, with the ratification of the 21st amendment.
Detail
- The cause(s) of Prohibition are that in the 1900s doctors discovered that alcohol damages mental and physical health. Husbands would spend all the families money on buying alcohol and the necessities of life, so the women formed anti-saloon groups. American women would group together to fight the evilness of alcohol, they had a slogan "Lips that touch liquor Shall not touch ours!". People would show up to work drunk and not be able to actually work because alcohol was all they had to drink because the milk and water weren't super clean, and iced tea was to expensive for the common family.
- Some characteristics are people who lived in the big cities went against the constitutional law and this is somewhat how the Mafia/organized crime become "reasonable". Al Capone moved to Chicago to take over Johnny Torrio's business of dealing outlawed liquor, within 300 years he had 700 men at his disposal. It was the first amendment that was repealed.
- Some of the legacies of Prohibition are people who would never had broken the law thought they found a reasonable reason to. Some very wealthy families today got their money from illegally selling alcohol. People realized that you can barely do any task while being drunk and this is what led to restrictions of alcohol. The age of when you can legally purchase alcohol and order it in a resturant or buy from a liquor store is because of prohibition.