Prohibition

September 2, 1996
Prohibition did not go into effect until 1920, but, with the early Americans notorious for heavy drinking, numerous groups had been trying to ban alcohol for decades. Although there were several well-known temperance advocates in the early 1800s, prohibitionists were derailed by a series of more pressing national matters--the abolitionist movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction. The "dry" cause picked up speed in 1893 with the formation of the Anti-Saloon League. Led by Wayne Wheeler, the ASL was a formidable lobbying group that was able to turn prohibition into a patriotic issue during WWI. With the conclusion of the war, and with the ASL and Wheeler at the height of their powers, passage of the Volstead Act was a foregone conclusion. Behr (The Last Emperor) tracks the 13 years of Prohibition primarily through the actions of Wheeler, bootlegger George Remus and Chicago mayor "Big Bill" Thomson, and in doing so stresses the corruption of politicians and law enforcement officials that made carrying out the 18th Amendment all but impossible. Behr calls Prohibition a disaster that helped cause some of today's problems by spurring the growth of organized crime. He also sees similarities between Prohibition and the current fight against drugs, and argues that an overhaul of antidrug legislation is long overdue. Although Behr's work is not a comprehensive examination of the Prohibition era, it is informative and entertaining from start to finish. Photos not seen by PW.

October 1, 1996
A&E, the Arts and Entertainment cable television channel, intends to produce a three-part miniseries based on this book, an interesting and readable history of the prohibition era. A journalist by trade, Behr masterly integrates family tales and expert interviews into his account of bootlegging, speakeasies, gangsterism, and racketeering. Although much of his book repeats what is already known about the troubled Twenties, it manages to break new ground by thoroughly telling the story of George Remus, a Cincinnati lawyer who became an influential bootlegger. Several chapters are devoted to Remus's business practices and associations with the likes of Harry Daugherty, Warren G. Harding's attorney general. The Remus story nicely illustrates the pervasive corruption of the period and will likely receive much attention in the upcoming television program. As A&E's interest in the book might suggest, it is written for general audiences. Recommended for public and undergraduate collections.--Raymond J. Palin, St. Thomas Univ., Miami, Fla.

October 15, 1996
Behr chronicles one of the grand themes of 1920s America--the national experiment in teetotalism, with its concomitant speakeasies, flappers, and gang wars--in rollicking style. He describes, maybe even celebrates, such incredible characters as Cincinnati's George Remus, Chicago's Al Capone, and the whole nation's Warren Harding as he proceeds from the ideas that led to the "great experiment" to the ensuing hypocrisy and disillusionment to the era's close with repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933. Yet he gives more than the usual gangsters-and-gats treatment of the era, showing how great social movements and forces converged and competed for the country's soul. Finally, he spells out prohibition's lasting effects memorably, in the process increasing understanding of American culture then and now. Some see privacy and civil liberties in the U.S. increasingly under attack again, so a history of an earlier day when Henry Ford had his workers spied on to see whether they were drinkers seems timely, indeed--"and" it accompanies a new cable-TV miniseries. ((Reviewed October 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)