Prohibition Dbq Research Paper

Although intended to improve U.S. society, Prohibition actually corrupted society with higher crime and negative impact within families. Prohibition officially started with ratification of the 18th amendment on January 16, 1920 when it banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks (clarified by the Volstead Act which defined alcoholic drinks as any beverage that was more than .5% alcohol by volume). Prohibition eventually ended 13 years later in 1933. Prohibition was known as the “noble experiment.” Organizations such as the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union thought that banning alcohol would reduce drunkenness, crime and poverty. The Volstead Act stated “any item designed to manufacture alcohol was illegal” and set
Doc F reflects crime data related to homicides that show steady increases throughout the period of Prohibition. In fact, the data indicates a 45% increase from 1920 to 1933! To make this worse, the intended benefit of reducing alcohol consumption was not even being achieved. Data reflected in Doc E shows that by 1923 alcohol consumption was already higher than what it was in 1918, two years before the constitutional amendment was ratified. Doc E shows consumption continued to grow throughout the period of Prohibition. A lot of normal jobs were shut down during the time of prohibition and new jobs related to the illegal activity surrounding the manufacture and distribution of alcohol were created. Doc B, an excerpt from “The Rumrunners, a prohibition scrapbook” makes the case that Prohibition was a great success for “the bootleggers, the rumrunners and gangsters, the roadhouse proprietors, the police, the magistrates, the spotters, the boaters and armies of others.” All these new jobs were illegal which increased crime in many areas. Prohibition failed to reduce consumption, created a lot of illegal jobs and led to an increase in