18th and 21st Amendments: Resources

Websites

The Overview

Just your basic overview of the whole thing.

Some of the More...Colorful Folks

Prohibition was the age of gangsters, and here they are. Just don't be like them.

Vintage Mob Mug Shots

For your aesthetic appreciation.

Cool Fashions

Lots of people like the streamlined-yet-glamorous look of the '20s.

Movie or TV Productions

The Untouchables

Eliot Ness and his squad of incorruptible Treasury Agents go up against gangster Al Capone. Has an incredible cast and crew, and this is where Sean "James Bond" Connery won his Oscar. Just don't look here for historical accuracy.

Boardwalk Empire

Prohibition gets the HBO prestige drama treatment. Not as good as some of the network's other offerings, but still worth a look. It plays fast and loose with the big parts of history, but gets a lot of the period details spot on.

Prohibition by Ken Burns

You know, if you have a spare five and a half hours.

Articles and Interviews

A Revisionist Take

Sure, the author thinks it was a failure, but she goes a bit further than that.

A Really Revisionist Take

This author says it worked, and he's a professor at Harvard.

Video

Prohibition and the Mafia

The most visible of the people who benefited from Prohibition.

3 Ways Prohibition Shaped America

The How Stuff Works people talk about Prohibition.

Prohibition Facts

Five most fascinating facts.

FDR approves the liquor code

Don't worry about your computer's sound; it's supposed to be silent.

Audio

"Knockin' a Jug" by Louis Armstrong

The great jazz trumpeter performs a Prohibition-era standard.

Warren G. Harding speech

The future president (at the time) gives a speech.

"Happy Days Are Here Again"

This ditty was the unofficial song of the FDR campaign. You can't blame lots of folks for thinking it referred to the imminent repeal of Prohibition.

Images

Wayne Wheeler

The man behind Prohibition.

Andrew Volstead

The Volstead Act's namesake. Check out the 'stache.

Carry Nation

...and her hatchet. She didn't want you to drink. Really didn't.

Ban Everything

A 1919 cartoon from Life magazine about how everyone in the U.S. would leave the country if they decided to ban other delicious stuff. That's just silly. Who would ban supersized sodas or transfats? Oh.

Deep Cover

Apparently Prohibition cops would do anything.

Going Out of Business Sale

People flocked to liquor stores (this one's in Detroit) on the last day before Prohibition.

Ocean's Eleven Hundred

Federal agents confiscate hundreds of cases of whiskey from a "rum runner" boat.

Disposing of Illegal Liquor

It had to go somewhere...

Prohibition Convention

This is how popular Prohibition was in the late 19th century. We really hope there were cosplayers in there somewhere.

He Fought the Law and the Law Won

The driver tried to run from the law. Didn't work out.