Book Review Edward Behr Prohibition Thirteen Years That Changed America

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1996 – Arcade Press In 1920, under pressure from the Christian Right, temperance movements and others, North America went dry, with a total legal ban on alcohol. Of course, it was the jazz age of bathtub gin, speakeasies, smuggling and all manner of ingenious ploys to fool the police divisions and customs officials trying to stem the unprecedented tide of lawlessness arising as a result. This was the time of Al Capone, the birth of the American Mafia, corrupt politicians and easily bribed cops, drive by shootings and more beside. Industrial and medicinal alcohols were still legal, so of course much hooch was sold as medicinal, or industrial. With Canada and Mexico still wet, cross border smuggling was rife, as was bringing in beer and spirits from Europe by boat. Some major US breweries and distilleries survived by selling their produce abroad and inevitably, some of it was redirected round the country too. Barely five percent of the illegal hooch being smuggled and brewed was found and destroyed by the inspectors. Much alcohol sold was severely diluted and doctored with paint thinners, anti-freeze, etc , leading to many death, blindness and madness. Smugglers had less to fear from the cops than from rival gang who would hijack their stashes, often with extreme violence. Much of the blame is given to the weak Us President, Warren Gamaliel Harding, with the claim that his Whitehouse was the biggest speakeasy in the US. The saddest story is that of George Remus, for much of Prohibition, the most respected and wealthy gangster, one who never doctored his supplies. Eventually caught, his amassed fortune was stolen by his wife while he was in prison. He eventually got angry enough to murder her (though she was trying to get an assassin to kill him). He escaped execution by being declared insane, though he was later found to be of sound mind and set free. The amazing story of America’s darkest peacetime disaster, with strong reminders that the war against other drugs such as heroin, Marijuana, etc., creates many of the same problems today. Arthur Chappell