Monday, September 6, 2010

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

1. Did you know that in the mid to late 1800s at the height of the temperance movement the average american drank 7 gallons of liquor a year?! Yes, I too was shocked. It would be the equivalent of the average american in 2010 drinking three times as much as they do right now!!!!!!
2. Did you also know that the brewers and distillers really thought nothing would come of the temperance movement? They also refused to join forces to fight the 300%+ taxes on their products.
3. Did you know that by 1900 there were nearly 300,000 saloons in the US (that is the count of those that were legally operating)? In San Francisco this amounted to one saloon for every 96 residents!
4. The Women's Suffrage movement and the temperance movement were motivated and orchestrated by many of the same people.
5. Ultimately Prohibition came to be as state after state was bullied and fell to the agreement to be dry. It was affected by representation in the urban and rural counties by state. Essentially a congressman with 70K constituents in the city had one vote while the rural (most often temperance movement) congressman with 10K constituents had one vote. The passing of the amendment greatly affected how states viewed their rights and their voting districts.

Can you guess what book I'm reading? It's a fantastic read. It's full of information without being dry and boring. The writing is scholarly without being pretentious or lecture style. He adds color to the many different figures and honestly has some shock factor too.
I am only up to the ratification of the amendment and can't wait to read about the actual decade.

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