prohibition

prohibition,

legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor lawsliquor laws,
legislation designed to restrict, regulate, or totally abolish the manufacture, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages. The passage of liquor laws has been prompted chiefly by the desire to prevent immoderate use of intoxicants, but sometimes also by the need to raise
..... Click the link for more information. . The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in the United States and developed largely as a result of the agitation of 19th-century temperance movementstemperance movements,
organized efforts to induce people to abstain—partially or completely—from alcoholic beverages. Such movements occurred in ancient times, but ceased until the wide use of distilled liquors in the modern period resulted in increasing drunkenness.
..... Click the link for more information. . Historians have pointed out that alcohol consumption rose dramatically in the 19th cent., particularly as waves of immigrants moved to America's cities, many opening saloons in their new homes. To some degree the movement to ban alcohol was the result of a social backlash by America's small-town white Protestant population against the urban immigrants and their culture. Prohibition also was often supported by political and social Progressives who advocated woman suffragewoman suffrage,
the right of women to vote. Throughout the latter part of the 19th cent. the issue of women's voting rights was an important phase of feminism. In the United States

It was first seriously proposed in the United States at Seneca Falls, N.Y.
..... Click the link for more information. , child welfare, and other reforms, and prohibition was associated in cities with the good-government movement, which opposed a saloon culture that helped boss-led political corruption to flourish.

A number of states passed temperance laws in the early part of the 19th cent., but most of them were soon repealed. A new wave of state prohibition legislation followed the creation (1846–51) of a law in Maine, the first in the United States. Emphasis shifted from advocacy of temperance to outright demand for government prohibition. Chief of the forces in this new and effective approach was the Anti-Saloon LeagueAnti-Saloon League,
U.S. organization working for prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors. Founded in 1893 as the Ohio Anti-Saloon League at Oberlin, Ohio, by representatives of temperance societies and evangelical Protestant churches, it came to wield great political
..... Click the link for more information. . Prohibition had become a national political issue, with a growing Prohibition partyProhibition party,
in U.S. history, minor political party formed (1869) for the legislative prohibition of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages.
..... Click the link for more information. and support from a number of rural, religious, and business groups.

The drive was given impetus in World War I, when conservation policies limited liquor output. After the war national prohibition became the law, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution forbidding the manufacture, sale, import, or export of intoxicating liquors. In spite of the strict Volstead Act (1919) (see under Volstead, Andrew JosephVolstead, Andrew Joseph
, 1860–1947, American legislator, b. Goodhue co., Minn. A lawyer, he held several local offices in Minnesota before serving (1903–23) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
..... Click the link for more information. ), law enforcement proved to be very difficult. Smuggling on a large scale (see bootleggingbootlegging,
in the United States, the illegal distribution or production of liquor and other highly taxed goods. First practiced when liquor taxes were high, bootlegging was instrumental in defeating early attempts to regulate the liquor business by taxation.
..... Click the link for more information. ) could not be prevented, and the illicit manufacture of liquor sprang up with such rapidity that authorities were unable to suppress it. There followed a period of unparalleled illegal drinking (often of inferior and dangerous beverages) and lawbreaking on a large and organized scale. Meanwhile, speakeasies flourished and provided a new venue for sexually integrated social interaction. In 1933 the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing prohibition, was ratified. A number of states, counties, and other divisions maintained full or partial prohibition under the right of local option. By 1966 no statewide prohibition laws existed. Prohibition laws were passed in Finland, the Scandinavian countries, and most of Canada after World War I, but were repealed, partly because of serious consequences to the countries' commerce with wine-exporting nations.

Bibliography

See Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws (1931) by the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission); C. Warburton, The Economic Results of Prohibition (1932, repr. 1969); H. Asbury, The Great Illusion (1950, repr. 1968); A. Sinclair, Prohibition, the Era of Excess (1962); J. H. Timberlake, Jr., Prohibition and the Progressive Movement (1963); J. Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade (1963); H. Waters, Smugglers of Spirits (1971); J. Kobler, Ardent Spirits (1973); D. Okrent, Last Call (2010); L. McGirr, The War on Alcohol (2015).

Prohibition

resurgence of American puritanism (1920–1933). [Am. Hist.: Allen, 14–15]See: Alcoholism

Prohibition

(1919–1933) period when selling and consuming liquor was against the law. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2710]See: Temperance

prohibition

1. (esp in the US) a policy of legally forbidding the manufacture, transportation, sale, or consumption of alcoholic beverages except for medicinal or scientific purposes 2. Law an order of a superior court (in Britain the High Court) forbidding an inferior court to determine a matter outside its jurisdiction

Prohibition

the period (1920--33) when the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was banned by constitutional amendment in the US

Prohibition

Related to Prohibition: Al Capone, Prohibition of alcohol

Prohibition

Police seize bootleg liquor during a Prohibition era raid in Detroit, Michigan.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

The popular name for the period in U.S. history from 1920 to 1933 when the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages—except for medicinal or religious purposes—were illegal.

From 1920 to 1933 the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors were illegal in the United States. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorized Congress to prohibit alcoholic beverages, but the twenty-first Amendment repealed this prohibition. The era of Prohibition was marked by large-scale Smuggling and illegal sales of liquor, the growth of Organized Crime, and increased restriction on personal freedom.

The prohibition movement began in the 1820s in the wake of a revival of Protestantism that viewed the consumption of alcohol as sinful and a destructive force in society. Maine passed the first state prohibition law in 1846, and other states followed in the years before the U.S. Civil War.

The Prohibition Party was founded in 1869, with a ban on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor as its only campaign goal. This party, like most temperance groups, derived its support from rural and small-town voters associated with Protestant evangelical churches. The Prohibition Party reached it zenith in 1892 when its candidate for president polled 2.2 percent of the popular vote. The party soon went into decline, and though it still exists, it works mainly at the local level.

The impetus for the Eighteenth Amendment can be traced to the Anti-Saloon League, which was established in 1893. The league worked to enact state prohibition laws and had great success between 1906 and 1913. By the time national prohibition took effect in January 1920, thirty-three states (63 percent of the total population) had prohibited intoxicating liquors.

The league and other prohibition groups were opposed to the consumption of alcohol for a variety of reasons. Some associated alcohol with the rising number of Aliens entering the country, many of whom were Roman Catholic. This anti-alien, anti-Catholic prejudice was coupled with a fear of increasingly larger urban areas by the rural-dominated prohibition supporters. Saloons and other public drinking establishments were also associated with prostitution and gambling. Finally, some employers endorsed prohibition as a means of reducing industrial accidents and increasing the efficiency of workers.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Congress prohibited the manufacture and importation of distilled liquor in order to aid the war effort. It also authorized the president to lower the alcoholic content of beer and wine and to restrict or forbid their manufacture.

A movement began to support elimination of intoxicating liquors by constitutional amendment. In 1917 Congress passed the Prohibition amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification. The rural-dominated state legislatures made ratification a foregone conclusion, and the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified on January 29, 1919. Congress enacted the Volstead Act, officially known as the National Prohibition Act (41 Stat. 305 [1919]) to enforce the amendment, which became effective on January 29, 1920.

Prohibition proved most effective in small towns and rural areas. Compliance was much more difficult in urban areas, where illegal suppliers quickly found a large demand for alcohol. Cities had large immigrant populations that did not see anything morally wrong with consuming alcohol. The rise of "bootlegging" (the illegal manufacture, distribution, and sale of intoxicating liquor) by organized crime proved to be one of the unintended consequences of Prohibition.

Besides the illegal importation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of intoxicating liquors by organized crime, millions of persons evaded Prohibition by consuming "medicinal" whiskey that was sold in drugstores on real or forged prescriptions. Many U.S. industries used denatured alcohol, which was treated with noxious chemicals to make it unfit for human consumption. Nevertheless, methods were found to remove these chemicals, add water and a small amount of liquor for flavor, and sell the mixture to illegal bars, called speakeasies, or to individual customers. Finally, many persons resorted to making their own liquor from corn. This type of product could be dangerously impure and cause blindness, paralysis, and death.The prohibition movement lost political strength in the 1920s. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression of the 1930s further changed the political climate. Critics of Prohibition argued that the rise of criminal production and sale of alcohol made the legal ban ineffective. In addition, the general public's patronage of speakeasies bred disrespect for law and government. Finally, critics argued that legalizing the manufacture and sale of alcohol would stimulate the economy and provide desperately needed jobs.

In 1932 the Democratic Party adopted a platform plank at its national convention calling for repeal. The landslide Democratic victory of 1932 signaled the end of Prohibition. The February 1933 resolution proposing the Twenty-first Amendment contained a provision requiring ratification by state conventions rather than state legislatures. This provision was included to prevent rural-dominated legislatures, which still supported Prohibition, from defeating the amendment.

The state ratification conventions quickly endorsed the amendment, with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment coming on December 5, 1933. The amendment did allow prohibition by the states. A few states continued statewide prohibition, but by 1966 all states had repealed these provisions. Liquor in the United States is now controlled at the local level. Counties that prohibit the sale of alcohol are known as dry counties, and counties that allow the sale of alcohol are known as wet counties.

Cross-references

Capone, Alphonse; Temperance Movement.

prohibition

n. forbidding an act or activity. A court order forbidding an act is a writ of prohibition, an injunction, or a writ of mandate (mandamus) if against a public official. (See: injunction, mandate)

PROHIBITION, practice. The name of a writ issued by a superior court, directed to the judge and parties of a suit in an inferior court, commanding them to cease from the prosecution of the same, upon a suggestion that the cause originally, or some collateral matter arising therein, does not belong to that jurisdiction, but to the cognizance of some other court. 3 Bl. Com. 112; Com. Dig. h.t.; Bac. Ab. h.t. Saund. Index, h.t.; Vin. Ab. h.t.; 2 Sell. Pr. 308; Ayliffe's Parerg. 434; 2 Hen. Bl.
2. The writ of prohibition may also be issued when, having jurisdiction, the court has attempted to proceed by rules differing from those which ought to be observed; Bull. N. P. 219; or when, by the exercise of its jurisdiction, the inferior court would defeat a legal right. 2 Chit. Pr. 355.

prohibition

pro·hi·bi·tion

prohibition

Prohibition

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Cross-references

prohibition

prohibition

Synonyms for prohibition

noun ban

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Synonyms for prohibition

noun a refusal to allow

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Synonyms for prohibition

noun a law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages

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noun a decree that prohibits something

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noun the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the United States by a constitutional amendment

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noun refusal to approve or assent to

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noun the action of prohibiting or inhibiting or forbidding (or an instance thereof)

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