The Consequences of Prohibition

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Recommended: Great depression of the 1920's

A short introduction

A lot of things happened in 1920 – USA was one of the victors in the first World War, and had a good period. Soon that was changed and USA suffered from many things, the great crash, prohibition and gang wars. But not only bad things happened – there was also the new deal, new cultures, new poets and writers.

The thing i want to write about is prohibition, that was a really big deal – lots of books have been written about this subject, why it happened, which consequences it had and so on. And that is the same thing that i want to write about. So the question is, why did it happen, and which consequences did it have, and did it have any effect?

Prohibition parties

The prohibition was really started in the 16th century by religious people that believed that alcohol was a gift from god, but its abuse came from the devil. And at that time you would get punished for the abuse. The abuse of the holy gift from god kept on, and soon the general population drank three and a half gallon alcohol a year, and that was much

higher that in the past years. After the revolution the societies became more urban, the economy changed and there was an increase in crime, poverty and unemployment, the blame was put on drunkenness. In this environment physicians tried to find out an explanation and a solution for drinking problems. Dr. Benjamin Rush, found out that it was injurious for your physical and psychological health. Dr. Benjamin Rush himself believed in moderation of the

alcohol rather than prohibition. Even though he did that, within the next decade temperance organisations were formed in eight states.The tem...

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...ld not have gone on for the thirteen years it was allowed to. Maybe they should have informed people how dangerous alcohol can be, and made some restrictions instead. Or they should have hired more people to enforce the law. But as mentioned prohibition was ineffective.

Sources

http://prohibition.osu.edu/content/Medicinal_Alcohol.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1091124904.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=441

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