Customer Reviews

Ardent spirits;: The rise and fall of prohibition

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This is a very well-written account of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition in the United States. The author has the gift of being able to combine well-organized fact into an engaging narrative. The book is divided into two parts. The first part begins in the early 1800s with Benjamin Rush, and progresses through the temperance efforts of the nineteenth century, covering the efforts of such personalities as Benjamin Gough, Frances Willard, Carrie Nation, and finally Bishop James Cannon, all the way up to the efforts of Wayne Wheeler and the Anti-Saloon League in the early 1900s. The second half gives views of the Prohibition era itself, including the gangster activity in New York and Chicago, the speakeasies, and the big-time booze smugglers, as well as enforcement efforts. Kobler has a real gift of bringing out the personalities involved on both sides of the issue. We get a delightful look at the comic but effective Prohibition agent Izzie Einstein, the despicable smuggler Edward Donegan, the deceptively affable Roy Olmstead, and other figures of the era. The book contains an excellent collection of portraits and photos of these personalities as well as pictures of Prohibition agents busting a still, or rum-running on the Detroit River. I was a bit disappointed when I reached the chapter about Repeal efforts, knowing the story was almost over. The final chapter looks at the remains of the Anti-Saloon League and the WCTU and draws the inevitable conclusion: you can't legislate temperance.