Prohibition : Thirteen Years That Changed America

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Historical Perspective
Review: A comprehensive historical account of how Prohibition came to be complete with vivid characters, noteworthy events, and corrupt politicians and public officials running wild! An effective account on the temptation of alcohol in the 18th and 19th century is used to lead up to the pre-Prohibition era. It was interesting to read that 19th century saloon keepers were often seen as the most cultured political influences in a time void of radio and television. From Carrie Nation to George Remus, whose life and times was a loose inspiration for Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, everything is here. A very thought-provoking read whether you are a "wet" or a "dry," "Prohibition" is well written and well researched.

Rating:
Summary: Guaranteed To Make You Think
Review: Considering the topic material covered, this was an excellent book. It was very informative and displayed much needed facts in an easy to read manner. I read this book for a history class and it gave me good insight on the early twentieth century. The book was slow to begin with but farther into it, it became more interesting covering such details as the highly influential gangsters of the time as well as the politicians, who were not so surprisingly involved in the underworld. I recommend this as a very informative book for those who have trouble finding easy-to-read material concerning American history.

Rating:
Summary: I Wanted More Social Context
Review: Mr. Behr's book gets off to a good start, with the first 70 or so pages describing historical attitudes towards liquor in the 19th century in the U.S. and how attitudes toward alcohol grew less and less permissive over the years.

However, the remaining 175 pages or so is like a biography of George Remus and the major players behind illicit alcohol manufacture and transport. While this was interesting up to a point, there was far more about the lives of these people than I cared to read, and I found myself skipping many pages.

Also, I was disappointed that Mr. Behr skirted the involvement of the mafia during the prohibition era, with only a brief mention of such household prohibition-era gangsters as Al Capone and "Lucky" Luciano.

I wished Mr. Behr would have taken a more humanistic perspective and taken us inside speakeasies, examined the social impacts of prohibition such as the growth in the popularity of jazz during prohibition, and explored the attitudes of the numerous otherwise law-abiding citizens who had no problems with drinking liquor illegally.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I wish that the author would have structured it differently.

Rating:
Summary: prohibition is still effective today
Review: Once one takes a look at the context of the information it becomes somewhat disheartening to read. People were knowingly hurting others for the sake of greed and image.

What disgusted me the most was not necissarily the gangsters or crime that this era created, but more to think of the stark injustices which parallel this world to that, every waking morning.

A powerful book that will make you ask just a few more questions and become just a little more informed.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Source.
Review: PROHIBITION is a great book to read if you want to know how Prohibition came about. The first half of the book does an excellent job describing how the 18th Amendment came about and the context in which Prohibition rose. There's a lot of key historical details there. Unfortunately, placing the event in context is not something that the author does for the remainder of the work. The last half of the book describes just a few major players during the Prohibition years and the downfall of Prohibition is written more as a brief epilogue than anything else.

I found PROHIBITION to be a very interesting book. I enjoyed reading it and learned a few things. However, the subtitle of the book is "Thirteen Years That Changed America" and though he does extrapolate how those thirteen years changed America, there really isn't a whole lot in the book that really describes what went on during those thirteen years. Still it is an intersting read, especially since there are so few books out about this era of America history.