LibGuides: VCE History: Area of Study 2: Social &amp; Cultural Change: Prohibition

Prohibition was the legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933 under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment. Although the temperance movement, which was widely supported, had succeeded in bringing about this legislation, millions of Americans were willing to drink liquor (distilled spirits) illegally, which gave rise to bootlegging (the illegal production and sale of liquor) and speakeasies (illegal, secretive drinking establishments), both of which were capitalized upon by organized crime. As a result, the Prohibition era is also remembered as a period of gangsterism, characterised by competition and violent turf battles between criminal gangs.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Prohibition, United States history [1920–1933], <https://www.britannica.com/event/Prohibition-United-States-history-1920-1933.

Khan Academy: Prohibition
In 1920, the United States banned the sale and import of alcoholic beverages. The prohibition of beverages lasted from 1920 to 1933 and led directly to the rise of organised crime. The Twenty-first Amendment, ratified in December 1933, repealed Prohibition.
History Channel: Prohibition
The Prohibition Era began in 1920 when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, went into effect with the passage of the Volstead Act. Despite the new legislation, Prohibition was difficult to enforce. The increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) and the accompanying rise in gang violence and organized crime led to waning support for Prohibition by the end of the 1920s.
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Table of contents
1. Origins of Prohibition
2. Volstead Act
3. Enforcement of Prohibition
4. Organised Crime
5. When Did Prohibition End?

Prohibition

Big Picture Essay Unintended Consequences of Prohibition
When the Prohibition era in the United States began on January 19, 1920, a few sage observers predicted it would not go well. Certainly, previous attempts to outlaw the use of alcohol in American history had fared poorly.
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When a Massachusetts town banned the sale of alcohol in 1844, an enterprising tavern owner took to charging patrons for the price of seeing a striped pig—the drinks came free with the price of admission. When Maine passed a strict prohibition law in 1851, the result was not temperance, but resentment among the city's working class and Irish immigrant population. A deadly riot in Portland in 1855 lead to the law's repeal. Now, Prohibition was being implemented on a national scale, and being enshrined in the Constitution no less. What followed was a litany of unintended consequences.