Prohibition and its Discontents (14)

Since when had prohibition been law?

January 16, 1920 (a year after states ratified 19th amendment)

What legislation enforced the 19th amendment? How did it do so?

the Volstead Act empowered the federal government to arrest and prosecute citizens for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcohol.

What important alcohol prohibition related actions did the Volstead act NOT ban?

consumption of alcohol or the purchase of required ingredients to make homemade alcohol.

were the 18th amendment and Volstead act successful in reducing alcohol consumption and therefore negative social behavior associated with excessive alcohol use?

yes

In what regard did the 18th amendment and Volstead act fail?

at stopping significant chunks of the population from drinking

Which authors works can serve as an example for how commonplace drinking alcohol was despite prohibition?

Fitzgerald (great gatsby and other works)

What was one of the most immediate effects of prohibition on American authors?

it gave them something new to write about

What is bootlegging?

the illegal manufacture, distribution, or sale of goods, especially alcohol

Which work was first serialized in 1933 as Prohibition was ending and turned into a film in 1934?

The Thin Man, a novel by Dashiell Hammett

How did hollywood’s portrayal of bootlegging differ from most of the fiction on the subject?

it portrayed the FBI’s “G Men” as Nobel heroes and bootleggers as compelling but dangerous criminals

What caused Hollywood to portrayal bootleggers in this way?

pressure from J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

What was the Hays Code?

a set of strict conservative production standards adopted by major studios starting in 1930

What film serves as an example of the Hays Code?

The Public Enemy (1931) in which a gangster works his way up the criminal underworld and meets a tragic end. The gangsters brother refused to participate and served as the films moral center.