40 Historical Markers on the Road to Prohibition

1. Prohibition Did Not Prohibit the Drinking of Alcohol

The Eighteenth Amendment did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol, only its manufacture, sale, and transportation. It was quite legal for people to drink up in their own homes, and in the year’s grace period between the ratification of Prohibition and it is going into effect, Americans rushed to stockpile as much booze as they could, in anticipation of the dry days to come.

For the wealthy, Prohibition was not much of an inconvenience. They had the means to purchase more liquor and wine than they could consume in a lifetime, and they had the cellar space in their various residences in which to store their alcohol. For average Americans of average means, it was a different story. Satisfying their demand for booze, the Eighteenth Amendment be damned, made the thirteen years of Prohibition one of the most fascinating eras of American history – but that is a story for another day.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Aaron, Paul, and Musto, David – Temperance and Prohibition in America: An Historical Overview (1981)

Behr, Edward – Prohibition: Thirteen Yeas That Changed America (1996)

Burns, Eric – The Spirits of America: A Social History of Alcohol (2003)

Encyclopedia Britannica – Anti Saloon League

Encyclopedia Britannica – Prohibition

Encyclopedia Britannica – Temperance Movement

Foster, Gaines M. – Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality (2002)

Kobler, John – Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (1973)

Murdoch, Catherine Gilbert – Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870 – 1940 (1998)

New York Times, January 19^th, 2019 – How the Klan Fueled Prohibition