Prohibition era

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide ban on the production, import, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.

Ken Burns latest PBS series, Prohibition, examines how a ban on alcohol in an alcohol-loving society ever came to be passed in the first place, and how its enforcement made it inevitable that it could not stand.

“I love to have a martini, two at the very most. Three and I’m under the table… Four and I’m under the host!” Though we don’t expect you all to know this, we recently acquired (in collaboration wit...

Ninety years ago, there were hundreds of illegal drinking spots in New York, and the speakeasies - which were often just a hidden room with barely drinkable booze - were mostly run by gangsters.

Stick ‘em up!: A cop with a gun. Watching too many Jimmy Cagney movies as a child made me think a gangster’s life as a possible career option. I could picture myself running a numbers racket, or selling moonshine, riding the running board while blasting the competition. Even the gangsters’ names were exotic: Al Capone, Bugsy Moran, John Dillinger, Tony Accardo. Then I turned six—discovered soccer and the fancy footwork of Jimmy “Jinky” Johnstone and Harry Hood which made me think playing for…

Speakeasies, illegal taverns that sell alcoholic beverages, came to an all-time high during the Prohibition era in the United States from 1920 to 1933.

December 5, 1933 - Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th Amendment and ending prohibition, 'the noble experiment.'