Daniel Okrent wrote an interesting book called "Last Call" about prohibition, the conditions that led to it, and how coalitions formed to put it in place (and to dismantle it shortly after). It's been awhile, but I recall it touching on topics relevant to this thread, including women's activism, social dysfunction, and the power of committed minorities to sway democracy - especially when they vote on a single issue.

Many hot-button issues today have sorted themselves along party lines, e.g. abor…

When I was taking American History, Prohibition was a non-solution to a non-problem, a backlash of rural Protestants to an increasingly diverse America. A cause led by Mencken's Puritans, who had "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." That story is, at best, incomplete.

At the turn of the century, "drink" was a real problem. "Drinking up the rent money" was not at all uncommon. Nor were husbands getting drunk and beating up their wives. Technology had made distilled spirits c…