23. Prohibition Was a Bad Solution, But the Problem It Sought to Address Was All Too Real
The above is just an example of the many ways. Prohibition was a flawed and misguided attempt to address a problem. However, Prohibition did not occur in a vacuum, and the problem it had sought to address was all too real, and quite serious. In a nutshell, America was, collectively speaking, a lush. A straight-up alcoholic country, in which booze was consumed and abused at levels far greater than any we are used to today. In 1839, British traveler Frederick Marryat marveled at American drinking habits in A Diary in America: “I am sure the Americans can fix nothing without a drink …
If you meet, you drink; if you part, you drink; if you make acquaintance, you drink; if you close a bargain you drink; they quarrel in their drink, and they make it up with a drink. They drink because it is hot; they drink because it is cold. If successful in elections, they drink and rejoice; if not, they drink and swear; they begin to drink early in the morning, they leave off late at night; they commence it early in life, and they continue it, until they soon drop into the grave“. Or as historian W. J. Rorabaugh put it: “Americans drank from the crack of dawn to the crack of dawn“.
