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I recently watched (and highly recommend) Ken Burns’ fantastic documentary series on prohibition. I learned so much about that era that wasn’t really covered m

I recently watched (and highly recommend) Ken Burns’ fantastic documentary series on prohibition. I learned so much about that era that wasn’t really covered much in school (i.e. prohibition gave rise to the first federal income tax, women’s suffrage was very closely tied to the prohibition movement, bootleggers were delivering shipments to congressmen at their offices in the capitol, etc.) It was an incredible look into America’s failed attempt to govern morality. It reminded a lot of how we see cannabis today.

Magodo 7y ago
On a lighter note, HBO's Boardwalk Empire is an excellent period piece as well
- phjesusthatguy3 7y ago
  Based on the non-fiction book[0] by Nelson Johnson. The show is very entertaining, while taking a number of liberties with the source material. I liked it a lot, and I'm in the process of re-watching it. It is also very graphic in it's depiction of violence. [0]http://www.boardwalkempire.com/ http://www.boardwalkempire.com/
- simplicio 7y ago
  I really liked the first season, which gave a wide view of the intersection between political machines, the wealthy, mobsters, ethnic communities, WWI veterans, reform groups, etc that made up the prohibition era in a much more interesting way than a lot of treatments of the time, which tend to focus on the mobsters to the exclusion of all else. Sadly after the first season, it pretty quickly degenerated into "all mobsters, all the time" show. Even the FBI guy joined the mob.
  - MrZongle2 7y ago
    That was my take as well. I really liked it as a period piece, but after S1 it seemed like the showrunners kept some characters merely because they liked the actors. Michael Shannon was wasted in later seasons, IMO.
hylaride 7y ago
That documentary is definitely on my top 10 list. It's amazing (especially in hindsight) how both prohibition's opponents didn't take the movement seriously, to how it's proponents didn't take the problems it caused seriously.
kiba 7y ago
It was an incredible look into America’s failed attempt to govern morality. It reminded a lot of how we see cannabis today. What do you mean by "governing morality"? Do we not have laws that attempt to prohibit harmful acts?
- scarface74 7y ago
  Laws should only be passed when you’re harming someone else. The US has a long history of passing laws governing morality even if it isn’t harming anyone else from segregation, to laws against interracial marriage, to laws banning homosexuality.
  - nkozyra 7y ago
    This pattern exists throughout history. When you look at it closely a lot of these laws (which have roots in old religious law) do have a kind of hook into "public safety." You can - through the lens of people without the technical capability to mitigate them - understand how the causality of certain acts were reflected in the creation of the laws. The argument that was made about alcohol was that it had a systemic, cascading effect on society. I think it's a fair argument at scope. Rampant alcoholism certainly can lead to a lot of larger societal problems. What prohibition proved, though, was that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Of course both alcohol and drug abuse are bad. But anytime the government is given more power, it’s always applied unevenly to poor and minorities. As much as some people love their guns for instance, the NRA and conservative politicians like Reagan were all for gun control when minorities were “exercising their rights”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act
      - nkozyra 7y ago
        Believe me, I'm not arguing for legislating behavior and there's no shortage of hypocrisy when it's been done.
nullxnull 7y ago
Learning about the connection to the women's suffrage movement was, for me, completely changed my context for understanding Prohibition. For those who haven't dug into it, I'd recommend checking out this Time article: https://time.com/5501680/prohibition-history-feminism-suffrage-metoo/ https://time.com/5501680/prohibition-history-feminism-suffra...
- mstade 7y ago
  Ditto, I had no idea about the link before watching the aforementioned documentary. I really enjoyed it!
fortran77 7y ago
This was covered extensively in high school American History courses (in NYC in the 1970s) and in my college's required American History courses. And even though the range of History studies is now much broader than when I went to high school, the current California public school curriculum still includes it. https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
Wingman4l7 7y ago
It also paved the way for law enforcement's use of wiretapping (Olmstead v. United States, 1928).
utopian3 7y ago
> Ken Burns’ fantastic documentary series on prohibition. I love Ken Burn's work, but haven't heard of this one. Looks like it is PBS. Do you know if it is available to stream anywhere (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney, Vudu, etc?)
- soperj 7y ago
  Looks like it's on Netflix

Magodo 7y ago

On a lighter note, HBO's Boardwalk Empire is an excellent period piece as well

phjesusthatguy3 7y ago
Based on the non-fiction book[0] by Nelson Johnson. The show is very entertaining, while taking a number of liberties with the source material. I liked it a lot, and I'm in the process of re-watching it. It is also very graphic in it's depiction of violence. [0]http://www.boardwalkempire.com/ http://www.boardwalkempire.com/
simplicio 7y ago
I really liked the first season, which gave a wide view of the intersection between political machines, the wealthy, mobsters, ethnic communities, WWI veterans, reform groups, etc that made up the prohibition era in a much more interesting way than a lot of treatments of the time, which tend to focus on the mobsters to the exclusion of all else. Sadly after the first season, it pretty quickly degenerated into "all mobsters, all the time" show. Even the FBI guy joined the mob.
- MrZongle2 7y ago
  That was my take as well. I really liked it as a period piece, but after S1 it seemed like the showrunners kept some characters merely because they liked the actors. Michael Shannon was wasted in later seasons, IMO.

hylaride 7y ago

That documentary is definitely on my top 10 list. It's amazing (especially in hindsight) how both prohibition's opponents didn't take the movement seriously, to how it's proponents didn't take the problems it caused seriously.

kiba 7y ago

It was an incredible look into America’s failed attempt to govern morality. It reminded a lot of how we see cannabis today. What do you mean by "governing morality"? Do we not have laws that attempt to prohibit harmful acts?

scarface74 7y ago
Laws should only be passed when you’re harming someone else. The US has a long history of passing laws governing morality even if it isn’t harming anyone else from segregation, to laws against interracial marriage, to laws banning homosexuality.
- nkozyra 7y ago
  This pattern exists throughout history. When you look at it closely a lot of these laws (which have roots in old religious law) do have a kind of hook into "public safety." You can - through the lens of people without the technical capability to mitigate them - understand how the causality of certain acts were reflected in the creation of the laws. The argument that was made about alcohol was that it had a systemic, cascading effect on society. I think it's a fair argument at scope. Rampant alcoholism certainly can lead to a lot of larger societal problems. What prohibition proved, though, was that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Of course both alcohol and drug abuse are bad. But anytime the government is given more power, it’s always applied unevenly to poor and minorities. As much as some people love their guns for instance, the NRA and conservative politicians like Reagan were all for gun control when minorities were “exercising their rights”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act
    - nkozyra 7y ago
      Believe me, I'm not arguing for legislating behavior and there's no shortage of hypocrisy when it's been done.

nullxnull 7y ago

Learning about the connection to the women's suffrage movement was, for me, completely changed my context for understanding Prohibition. For those who haven't dug into it, I'd recommend checking out this Time article: https://time.com/5501680/prohibition-history-feminism-suffrage-metoo/ https://time.com/5501680/prohibition-history-feminism-suffra...

mstade 7y ago
Ditto, I had no idea about the link before watching the aforementioned documentary. I really enjoyed it!

fortran77 7y ago

This was covered extensively in high school American History courses (in NYC in the 1970s) and in my college's required American History courses. And even though the range of History studies is now much broader than when I went to high school, the current California public school curriculum still includes it. https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf

Wingman4l7 7y ago

It also paved the way for law enforcement's use of wiretapping (Olmstead v. United States, 1928).

utopian3 7y ago

> Ken Burns’ fantastic documentary series on prohibition. I love Ken Burn's work, but haven't heard of this one. Looks like it is PBS. Do you know if it is available to stream anywhere (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney, Vudu, etc?)

soperj 7y ago
Looks like it's on Netflix