Customer Reviews

Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Behr's book gets off to a good start, with the first 70 or so pages describing historical attitudes towards liquor in the 19th century in the U.S. and how attitudes toward alcohol grew less and less permissive over the years.

However, the remaining 175 pages or so is like a biography of George Remus and the major players behind illicit alcohol manufacture and transport. While this was interesting up to a point, there was far more about the lives of these people than I cared to read, and I found myself skipping many pages.

Also, I was disappointed that Mr. Behr skirted the involvement of the mafia during the prohibition era, with only a brief mention of such household prohibition-era gangsters as Al Capone and "Lucky" Luciano.

I wished Mr. Behr would have taken a more humanistic perspective and taken us inside speakeasies, examined the social impacts of prohibition such as the growth in the popularity of jazz during prohibition, and explored the attitudes of the numerous otherwise law-abiding citizens who had no problems with drinking liquor illegally.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I wish that the author would have structured it differently.

Considering the topic material covered, this was an excellent book. It was very informative and displayed much needed facts in an easy to read manner. I read this book for a history class and it gave me good insight on the early twentieth century. The book was slow to begin with but farther into it, it became more interesting covering such details as the highly influential gangsters of the time as well as the politicians, who were not so surprisingly involved in the underworld. I recommend this as a very informative book for those who have trouble finding easy-to-read material concerning American history.

I found this to be a good book in two ways.
First, it gave an interesting and quite accurate account of what America was like under Prohibition. For students and amateur historians seeking to learn about the Roaring 20s, this would be a good choice.
Secondly, this book has relevance to our own time as well. As the author constantly notes, there are many parallels between Prohibition in the 20s and today's "War on Drugs." What I found most tragic about the campaign to outlaw alcohol in the 20s was the naivte of people in authority, thinking they could change behavior through legislation. As history shows, the 18th Amendment led not to the elimination of alcohol consumption in America, but rather to a general disrespect for law and law enforcement personnel. And the absence of most legal liquor simply resulted in a profusion of illegal liquor, which in turn enriched and encouraged the notorious "gangsters" of the era.
This book has made me rethink my opinion of the "War on Drugs," and on Prohibition itself. I am not a drinker, nor do I use drugs; so I have always had an indifferent attitude toward prohibition legislation, perhaps sometimes even leaning in favor of a legal clampdown. However, after reading Mr. Behr's account of what happened to America during the 13 years of Prohibition, I now seriously doubt both the effectiveness and the wisdom of such laws.
Perhaps the New York politician of the era, Fiorello La Guardia, had it right when he said, "Excessive drinking [and drug use, for that matter] can be curbed by education, not legislation."
To sum up, this is a book that will not only teach you a bit of history; it will also make you think. I recommend it!

Edward Behr's book provides an adequate, if somewhat unexceptional, survey of the Prohibition Era, but the author relies too often on other secondary sources. As such, the book never rises above the routine. Behr takes a breezy approach to the material, so this particular book cannot be considered serious scholarship.

There are some instances of sloppiness and a lack of attention to detail. "Dan O'Banion" was not the name of a prominent Chicago bootlegger (Dean O'Banion was the actual person). The chapter on Chicago during Prohibition is riddled with similar errors and mistakes. Morris Eller and Emanuel Eller were not prominent Chicago Democrats. Mayor William Dever was not a committed "Dry." Although Clarence Darrow was often identified with the Democratic Party, he served in the Illinois General Assembly as a Prohibition Party representative, but Behr identifies him as a lifelong "Wet." The notorious criminal gang from St. Louis was known as "Egan's Rats," not "Regan's Rats."

Behr devotes considerable time to the lobbyists from the Anti-Saloon League, but minimizes the roles played by feminists and progressives in promoting prohibition. Frances Willard, a leader at Northwestern University and an advocate of women's suffrage, was also the leader of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. After the repeal of prohibition, it became fashionable to blame the passage of the amendment solely on the evangelicals and religious fanatics, but the feminists and progressives must also be held accountable and share in the overall blame.

There are some interesting and entertaining anecdotes conveyed in the book, but the treatment of the topic is definitely lightweight and stereotypical. Behr manages to recycle some old canards about William Hale Thompson and Warren Harding, but still manages to outline some of the essentials.

PROHIBITION is a great book to read if you want to know how Prohibition came about. The first half of the book does an excellent job describing how the 18th Amendment came about and the context in which Prohibition rose. There's a lot of key historical details there. Unfortunately, placing the event in context is not something that the author does for the remainder of the work. The last half of the book describes just a few major players during the Prohibition years and the downfall of Prohibition is written more as a brief epilogue than anything else.

I found PROHIBITION to be a very interesting book. I enjoyed reading it and learned a few things. However, the subtitle of the book is "Thirteen Years That Changed America" and though he does extrapolate how those thirteen years changed America, there really isn't a whole lot in the book that really describes what went on during those thirteen years. Still it is an intersting read, especially since there are so few books out about this era of America history.

This book is very badly written and full of errors. In Chapter 8, for instance, the following errors stand out:

1. "Florence Harding had a daughter by her first marriage." Actually, she had a son.

2. Reference is made to the 1919 Convention. Come on! It was 1920!

3. There is no Deer Creek Park in or near Washington. Harry Daugherty and Jess Smith owned a hunting lodge on Deer Creek in Ohio.

4. Harding's Secretary of the Navy was Edwin Denby, not Dealy.

5. Jess Smith had no brother, much less one named Mal who owned a bank in Ohio. Mal Daugherty, Harry's brother, was the banker in question.

How anyone doing any research at all could have made such glaring errors is hard to fathom. The book was evidently turned out slapdash, with no attempt at accuracy.

A comprehensive historical account of how Prohibition came to be complete with vivid characters, noteworthy events, and corrupt politicians and public officials running wild! An effective account on the temptation of alcohol in the 18th and 19th century is used to lead up to the pre-Prohibition era. It was interesting to read that 19th century saloon keepers were often seen as the most cultured political influences in a time void of radio and television. From Carrie Nation to George Remus, whose life and times was a loose inspiration for Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, everything is here. A very thought-provoking read whether you are a "wet" or a "dry," "Prohibition" is well written and well researched.

Edward Behr is a journalist and war correspondent who wrote this very readable book. Was Prohibition an attempt by the Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment to keep a cultural standard (p.3)? America had traditionally been "wet", and Prohibition did not come from the Bible. Was alcohol the cause of working class poverty and crime (p.4)? Poverty was created by being a wage-earner who earned less and didn't work full time. Legalization of alcohol resulted in public health problems, prohibition lead to increased crime plus public health problems. The XVIII Amendment gave the Federal government the power to control alcohol. The Volstead Act created Prohibition, a trick denounced by those who only wanted to ban liquor. The lobbyists for Prohibition set an example in passing laws that is used by Gun Prohibitionists today.

Chapter 1 tells of traditional consumption of hard liquor in America (p.9). Behr suggests Prohibition became an important question because there were few other major issues (p.10). Taverns had a long history of political involvement since Colonial times. [Would banning taverns prohibit political organizing by working men?] The church and the taverns were social centers (p.11). Prohibition was tried and failed in 1735 Georgia (p.13). The famous Dr. Benjamin Rush first questioned the traditional value of alcohol (p.15). Liquor may have killed more native Americans than White Man's diseases and firearms (p.18). Temperance societies began advocating Prohibition by the 1830s (p.19). Once drinking became a sin myths were created to justify this belief. Drinking caused spontaneous combustion of the drinker (p.22)! In 1851 Maine became the first state to prohibit the sale of liquor (p.29). This was copied in other states (p.30), then quickly repealed (p.31). Prohibition was wrong to deny all rights just because a few abuse their rights. Lincoln said that Prohibition was un-American (p.33). While the war against liquor was the first women's mass movement, their leaders were mostly men (Chapter 3). [Was that like adopting a new style that was in vogue?]

Famous women Prohibitionists were Frances Elizabeth Willard (p.38) and Carry Nation (p.40). Both had personal quirks. The WCTU was followed by the US Brewers Association (p.47). Women's suffrage became a political football. Prohibitionists were a mixed bag of liberals and conservatives (p.48). The Anti-Saloon League (ASL), controlled by Big Corporations, became one of the strongest lobbies in the country (p.49). The new urban changes brought increases in poverty and crime. Prohibition claimed to be the "silver bullet" that would end poverty and crime. [How can anyone be against that?] The tactics of the ASL are described (p.55). They used volunteers to support a rich businessman who supported "dry" politics to defeat a "wet", even if their candidate drank (p.56). They were able to defeat a Republican governor in the staunchly Republican state of Ohio (p.57). Scientists had evidence of the evils of alcohol (p.59). In 1917 the ASL had a new argument: Prohibition was Patriotic (Chapter 5). President William H. Taft warned against it (p.80). Washington state had showed what would happen (p.84). One reason the Big Corporations turned against Prohibition was higher income taxes (Chapter 16). The wealthy did not suffer from Prohibition (Chapter 17).

Behr is wrong in some of his details: pages 143, 83 "barely enough". Chapter 8 tells about Warren Harding, who was sterile, and could not have fathered Nan Britton's child (p.109). Was Harding's sexual activities any different from most 20th century Presidents? That TV series came out in 1958 (Chapter 13). Lima is in Ohio not "Kentucky" (p.237).

Overall, the book is a good source on Prohibition, but far from comprehensive. Contrary to the title, Behr spends a third of the book talking about the years leading up to Prohibition. The rest of the book goes into hair splitting detail on the career and trial of George Remus, known as the King of Bootleggers. I personally used the book as a source in writing my own book on Prohibition, but I only really used a couple of tidbits from it. If the Prohibition era were a song, Behr's book would be the countermelody, missing the general theme of the era. The book is good, but the title should be changed to "George Remus and the History of the Prohibition Movement." If you are interested in Prohibition check out:
Alcohol, Boat Chases, and Shootouts! How the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Fought Rum Smugglers and Pirates (Part I: 1919-1924)

Once one takes a look at the context of the information it becomes somewhat disheartening to read. People were knowingly hurting others for the sake of greed and image.

What disgusted me the most was not necissarily the gangsters or crime that this era created, but more to think of the stark injustices which parallel this world to that, every waking morning.

A powerful book that will make you ask just a few more questions and become just a little more informed.