De’Andre Ray
Research Question:
Did the Prohibition Act actually work?
Word Count:1970
Table of Contents:
Title Page….Pg.1
Table of Contents….Pg.2
Identification and Evaluation of Sources….Pg.3
Identification and Evaluation of Sources (Cont.)….Pg.4
Investigation….Pg.5
Reflection….Pg.9
Bibliography….11
Section 1. – Identification and Evaluation of Sources
The main focus for this paper is “did the Prohibition Act actually work?” I analyze the pros and cons of the Prohibition, as well as the two sides of it (dry side & Wet side). The Prohibition covers all of the U.S. as far as economy, government, culture, and social structure, and for the sake of this essay I shall be covering these said areas. I chose the book Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America by Edward Behr, and an article by the title of Prohibition and its Effect by Lisa Andersen to analyze because both of these sources had a lot of valuable information regarding the dry side and the wet side. These sources give enough insight from a historian’s view point to determine if the Prohibition Act was successful.
Source:Behr, Edward. Prohibition: thirteen years that changed America. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2013.
This source is valuable due to its author, Edward Behr, not being from America. This gives historians an outside look on the topic of Prohibition. He also uses many sources that would be otherwise hard to obtain. The use of these sources helps to credit his source as usable, along with his full extensive use of said sources and common knowledge.I believe its main purpose was to use primary sources to teach us about Prohibition.
This source however, has limitations in that it also has the author’s input alongside the actual facts, making it possibly biased. Another limitation is that the author primarily used primary sources, so the information he used could have been selective.
This source originates from a French author, which helps to get a better understanding of the Prohibition Act from a non-American’s perspective. This adds an outsider’s view, making my information more open minding.
Source:Andersen, Lisa. "Prohibition and Its Effects." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. March 02, 2012. Accessed December 03, 2017.
This source shows value in that it delves deep into the Prohibition times and its struggle on the streets. It comes from a historian's point of view, which has experience finding primary sources and better aiding their research.
It is however, limited in that it only talks of the wet side’s tale of the Prohibition. There is
no other side to the argument, which could potentially make the source biased. It’s also limited in
that it was made in the near past, so the information could’ve been misinterpreted through time.
The source originates from a student historian, who used primary sources and gathered all the detail to make it easier to research the wet side of the Prohibition. It serves the purpose of helping to understand the side of America that wanted to continue to drink during the era of the Prohibition.
Section 2. – Investigation
The Prohibition lasted for thirteen years. During this time a lot of things changed socially, such as allowing women to drink in bars (not allowed before Prohibition), an increased crime rate, and many issues regarding government and control of the civilians. This brings up the question of whether the Prohibition era was truly successful. The era was not successful for more than a few reasons. Alcohol was illegal to buy, sell, or make, increasing crime rate in America by seventy eight percent. This gave way to roughly thirty murders from 1920-1925 just because people tried to do the right thing. Another issue due to this era is the political corruption during the time, with brewers having strong political connections to stay out of trouble. These issues, along with many more, are what lead me to drive the claim that the thirteen year Prohibition era was not successful in any shape or form.
Since drinking was not allowed from 1920 to 1933 (start and end of Prohibition) most people went to places called “speakeasies.” This caused many people to turn criminal according to law. Speakeasies were secret liquor stores or bars, and these bars often allowed women to participate in drinking. The alcohol sold and served at these speakeasies were often provided by bootleggers. Bootleggers were mostly gangsters who had decided to make alcoholic beverages in their own home. Bootleggers lived a life full of dread and were often hassled by police, lawyers, and politicians. However most bootleggers were able to pay their way out of trouble, or have Prohibition agents look the other way. This increased crime rate more by having an excess amount of Prohibition agents fired due to corruption (ten percent). Also noted, roughly thirty agents died in the five years of 1920 to 1925 because they tried to do the right thing and report the bootleggers. The bootlegging business had risen to a one billion dollar business as said by the Internal Revenue Bureau. Because of this, many criminals like Al Capone and criminal organizations made a large sum of profit ($100 million annually) due to the selling of illegal alcohol. Al Capone stated “I make my money by supplying a public demand.” Al Capone and other criminals and criminal organizations were able to keep alcohol on the streets, resulting in Americans consuming twenty five million gallons of illegal liquor in 1920. With this much alcohol consumption and other crimes, there must be some reason that the government wasn’t shutting it down. There was: government corruption.
The U.S. government had been through many hardships during the Prohibition, but none hurt more than the corruption during the time. The government had only made it harder to enforce Prohibition by allowing excused uses of alcohol in the Volstead Act, such as medical use. Pharmacists were allowed to have “medical alcohol”, and within six months of the Prohibition, fifteen thousand pharmacists had made attempts to gain a permit for selling alcohol. It’s implied that the pharmacists also drank their own medical alcohol. The government was also too far stretched and underfunded to have a full force against Prohibition, with there only being roughly three thousand Prohibition agents at maximum. During the first few years of the Prohibition era, there were only one thousand five hundred agents to fight for Prohibition. Not only this, but most of these agents (ten percent) were fired for acts such as drunkenness and being involved in corruptions. It was hard to resist, with agents being able to be paid three hundred thousand a month to stay quiet, or other bribes such as someone’s wife for handing over ten barrels of whiskey. Another struggle was the fact that so many people drank. It became an issue within the legal system to get a jury trial for everyone that got arrested for drinking illegally. Although the most power the wet side had gotten from the government were standpat republican men in congress, they still had enough political power to keep the brewers and bootleggers out of trouble. Some states even managed to allow certain wines and beer, which went against the Volstead Act.
With so many ways to keep alcohol on the street, with some examples being home made, redistilled, or smuggled from Canada, it was impossible for the Prohibition to succeed. “America had been awash in drink almost from the start- wading hip-deep in it, and at various times in its history drowning in it.”-Frederick Marryat. This statement helps drive the claim of the Prohibition not working. This is because drinking is something that had been embedded into the American lifestyle. In 1895, 20 years before the Prohibition took place, the average American drank 2.23 gallons of alcohol. The only solid evidence that historians can find that the Prohibition truly worked is the slight decline of drinking during the first two or three years of Prohibition. There were many reasons for the Prohibition leaders to want it to work, and if they had, America might have been in a golden age since the Prohibition.
One of the reasons Prohibition leaders looked forward to the vigorous enforcement of Prohibition is because they believed that once license to do business was removed from the liquor traffic, the churches and reform organizations would enjoy an opportunity to persuade Americans to give up drinking. They also did it because before the Prohibition kids were also drinking.
In conclusion, the Prohibition Act was very ineffective and only lasted 13 years. It started in 1920 and ended in 1933 due to the 21st amendment repealing the 18th amendment and permitting the use of, selling of, or making of beer and other alcohols. It’s many reasons such as corruption, and poor control over Prohibition, as well as the history behind drinking, and how hard it is to terminate it are what made the Prohibition such a hard challenge to overcome for the government. As I stated previously, drinking had been used in many of daily life activities, such as going out, drinking for breakfast, or for dinner. Americans had been seen drinking for every event, reason, and time in 1839, after the German influx. It is now easy to say from extensive research that the Prohibition era was unsuccessful, despite it having a huge impact on our society and culture today.
Section 3. – Reflection
For this investigation, I used many methods of research that historians normally use. I mainly drew my information from books and website sources, as well as primary documents such as the 18th amendment and 21st amendment. Despite having a wide variety of research and sources used, my essay can be seen as very one-sided due to my lack of use of these sources. I struggled to include many of my sources because of my argument, which I believe truly wasted my time that could have been used writing my paper. I also had issues at the start of my research process with finding reliable sources that I could use to find well cited facts and information. I lacked a sense of time management during the research and writing of this paper. I used a lot of my time making research cards, which was hard for me to stay on focus with, which took even more time to get done. I wish I could have used more of my time improving my research paper itself after I had gathered and organized all of my facts. I like that this paper did teach me how to write a well rounded essay and improve my use of chicago citations. I would not have taken away how to perform proper research and find the right sources without having done this IB history paper. The other ability I took away from this is how to improve my time management. Towards the end of this essay and writing process I learned that it is important to put away wants such as watching youtube or playing games and getting the needs, in this case my complete paper, done and turned in on time. Because I had an issue with time management before I started research and wrote this paper I ended up having to turn in the research process and essay extremely late, which could heavily impact my grade and paper quality. I liked that I chose the topic of Prohibition because it truly interested me as something that could be proven as a valuable time or not in history. Of course I stated that I thought the era was not worth while and unsuccessful with backed research, but I believe it’s an opinion that anyone can form to fight for either side. With this is mind, I appreciate the flexibility I had to be able to pick a topic in time that I actually found interesting in history, as it made the process of getting the paper done in a timely manner in a fun way. In the long run, I enjoyed this assignment and I am glad to have gained experience from doing so.
Bibliography
Behr, Edward. Prohibition: thirteen years that changed America. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2013.
Okrent, Daniel. Last call: the rise and fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2011.
Hakim, Joy. War, peace, and all that jazz: 1918-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
"The Volstead Act." National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed December 03, 2017. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/volstead-act.
"Joint Resolution Proposing the Eighteenth Amendment." DocsTeach. December 18, 1917. Accessed December 03, 2017. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/18th-amendment.
"Joint Resolution Proposing the Twenty-First Amendment." DocsTeach. February 20, 1933. Accessed December 03, 2017. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/21st-amendment.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/roaring-twenties/essays/prohibition-and-its-effects.3
"Why Prohibition?" Prohibition. Accessed December 03, 2017. https://prohibition.osu.edu/why-prohibition.
"Apparent Consumption 1850-1983." Prohibition. Accessed December 03, 2017. https://prohibition.osu.edu/brewing/consumption.
"Production of Malt Beverages in the U.S." Prohibition. Accessed December 03, 2017. https://prohibition.osu.edu/brewing/production-malt-beverages-us.