!1: Now is the time Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition Order Today!
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Date Created :
Oct 09, 2010 08:17:13
From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea. That Americans would ever agree to relinquish their booze was as improbable as it was astonishing.
Yet we did, and Last Call is Daniel Okrent’s dazzling explanation of why we did it, what life under Prohibition was like, and how such an unprecedented degree of government interference in the private lives of Americans changed the country forever.
Writing with both wit and historical acuity, Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces: the growing political power of the women’s suffrage movement, which allied itself with the antiliquor campaign; the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities; the anti-German sentiment stoked by World War I; and a variety of other unlikely factors, ranging from the rise of the automobile to the advent of the income tax.
Through it all, Americans kept drinking, going to remarkably creative lengths to smuggle, sell, conceal, and convivially (and sometimes fatally) imbibe their favorite intoxicants. Last Call is peopled with vivid characters of an astonishing variety: Susan B. Anthony and Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan and bootlegger Sam Bronfman, Pierre S. du Pont and H. L. Mencken, Meyer Lansky and the incredible—if long-forgotten—federal official Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who throughout the twenties was the most powerful woman in the country. (Perhaps most surprising of all is Okrent’s account of Joseph P. Kennedy’s legendary, and long-misunderstood, role in the liquor business.)
It’s a book rich with stories from nearly all parts of the country. Okrent’s narrative runs through smoky Manhattan speakeasies, where relations between the sexes were changed forever; California vineyards busily producing “sacramental” wine; New England fishing communities that gave up fishing for the more lucrative rum-running business; and in Washington, the halls of Congress itself, where politicians who had voted for Prohibition drank openly and without apology.
Last Call is capacious, meticulous, and thrillingly told. It stands as the most complete history of Prohibition ever written and confirms Daniel Okrent’s rank as a major American writer.
!1: Best Buy I was given this book to review a few weeks ago, and while the history of prohibition always sounded interesting to me, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to read a whole book about it. As I started reading, though, this book started to make me feel nostalgic about a time that I never even lived in.
Last Call covers everything that is prohibition, as seen through the eyes of teetotalers and drinkers, politicians, brewers and distillers, and everyone else affected by the movement (and, as it turns out, EVERYONE was, and still is, affected).
The book begins with a history of the the temperance movement in the United States. As the teetotalers tried to come up with creative ideas to push their agenda forward, some political ideals were created which are still around today, such as income tax and women's suffrage. Dirty politicians were bought and sold like merchandise. Brewers and distillers, desperate to cling to their only source of revenue, battled hard, but ultimately lost the fight. At least, for the time being.
Life during prohibition was perhaps the most interesting part of the book. The creative ways people were able to keep their booze flowing was one of the most entertaining examples of human ingenuity I've ever read about.
I suppose that if you had been alive during prohibition, many of the facts in the book might seem like common knowledge, but for someone born half a century later, there are many interesting things which someone like myself may not know about. For example, I did not realize that there was a year between when prohibition was passed, and when it went into effect; and additionally, citizens were allowed to keep whatever alcohol they had acquired prior to the effective date. This meant that, essentially, the rich were immune to prohibition laws because they were able to hoard a lifetime supply of legal liquor in their houses.
I could go on and on about the things I learned in this book, but I'll leave the rest for you to find out. You won't regret picking up this book, it is a fantastic read! on Sale!
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