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A Synthesis Essay: The Role Of Prohibition In The United States

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During the first two decades of the 20th century, wide immigrants population full of conflicts and colorful mix of ethnic groups such as Italians, Russians, African-Americans and others started to immigrate to United States especially to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. These immigrants started forming organized crime groups, most are Italian frustrated by the poor life style they had in Italy. Consequently they chose to join the American Mafia. On January 16th 1919, the 18th amendment is approved by 36 states in the United States of America and goes into effect on the federal level, so by the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later on January 17th 1920, which is referred to The Prohibition era in the United States. In other words, it’s the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States through banning the production, import, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages and declaring its illegalness. Hence on daybreak of January 17, 1920 one of the personal habits and everyday practices of most Americans suddenly diminished. Prohibition was undertaken mainly to reduce the amount of liquor consumed, and for other significant purposes to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems and to improve health …show more content…

But we must take into consideration the general outturn of prohibition, not just decreased alcoholic beverages consumption. Prohibition had prevalent effects on every feature of alcohol production, import, transport and sale. In summary, prohibition did not attain its objectives it was a Failure, it added complexity to the problems rather than solving them. The only people who benefited from this act where crimes bosses and bootleggers. On December 5, 1933, Prohibition in the United States ended with the passage of the 21th Amendment to the United States

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In 1920 The United States congress passed an amendment that banned the production of alcohol for recreational use but not for private use. The Prohibition Act or 18th Amendment was written to ban the selling, production, and transportation of alcohol. Famous mobsters like Al Capone and others decided to fill the void and America saw an increase in the consumption of alcohol. Rather than stopping crime in America the Prohibition Act actually created more crime with the creation of bootlegging and illegal saloons and pubs were formed.

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In the years before Prohibition, the Progressive Movement created a mood of reform to improve society. The United States had just ended World War I against Germany a great producer of alcohol. In addition, businessmen like John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford strongly believed that alcohol was a threat to the economy because workers would go to work drunk and would not work efficiently. The United States repealed the 18th Amendment and allowed alcohol because of increased crime, problems with enforcement, and economic need. The first reason America repealed Prohibition was due to an increase in crime.

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The Prohibition Amendment, or the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, was ratified in 1919 and came into force in 1920. The amendment made it illegal to produce, sell, and transport alcohol in the country. It was a reaction to the temperance movement, which had long argued for the decriminalization of alcohol. During Prohibition, law enforcement organizations tried to enforce alcohol prohibition, which resulted in enhanced scrutiny of people suspected of breaking the law. Many people arrested for Prohibition violations, such as bootleggers and speakeasy proprietors, were photographed and their photos were cataloged in police records.

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As shown by the political cartoon made by Winsor McCoy, acts of organized crime made by gangsters, racketeers, bootleggers, and dope sellers (with the help of the Prohibition) led to the Great Depression. With all of these factors eventually leading to the largest economic downfall in United States history, it’s easy to see why American citizens wanted to remove the ban on alcohol. Also, the FBI Uniform Crime Reports show the number of homicides increased during Prohibition and decreased after Prohibition. In the crime report, the homicide rate increased from 7 homicides per 100,000 people to 10 homicides per 100,000 people during the Prohibition, and decreasing to 6 homicides per 100,000 people. This evidence points to the fact that crime and criminal activity played a huge part in the removal of the 18th

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Subsequently, the nation realized prohibition was not working and things began downfall. America began to change its mind, repealing the amendment because prohibition was unenforceable, nobody wants it, and legalizing alcohol would benefit our economy. Prohibition was nearly impossible to enforce, and people usually got away with breaking the law. “Smuggling from Mexico and Canada has been successful on a large scale because it is utterly impossible to patrol the thousands of miles of border..”(Haskin 1923)

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Bah-Bah. Prohibition was the legal ban on the production, sale and transportation of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 due to the passing of the 18th Amendment. This is one of the most significant amendments for several reasons. It was the only amendment to be repealed and the first amendment to limit citizens personal liberties. The ratification of the 18th amendment created more conflict than it did peace due to gang violence, bootlegging, and other drug use.

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