Winston Churchill called Prohibition “an affront to the whole history of mankind.” In retrospect, it’s pretty amazing to think that it could happen at all — a constitutional amendment to prohibit all intoxicating beverages.
Daniel Okrent’s “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” (2010) provides an excellent history of the “dry” movement, and then a fascinating description of what happened when American’s drinks were taken away. (Hint: they didn’t stop drinking.)
Highly recommended for anyone interested in the politics of Prohibition and the birth of organized crime. It also included some interesting “states rights” angles. (Maryland, for example, simply refused to enforce the law. New York enacted an alcohol prohibition, but later repealed it.) Wayne Wheeler, uber-lobbyist for the Anti-Saloon League, is compared by Okrent to Karl Rove.
Read reviews from the NY Times, the Washington Post and the Christan Science Monitor.