Bootleg, Moonshine, and Home Brew About Prohibition Era

To end public drunkenness and Americans' social standard of consuming alcohol, the United States Government implemented the prohibition of alcohol. Lisa McGirr, a professor of history at Harvard University and a specialist in the history of the 20th-century United States, recently published a book with a chapter referencing the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. Her research states that the 18th Amendment of alcohol was an attack on the working-class ethnic Americans and immigrants alike.

Illegal Alcohol, Moonshine, and Homemade Brews of the Prohibition Era

During the reading of “Bootleg, Moonshine, and Home Brew,” Lisa McGirr referenced several documents, statistics, and statements made during the prohibition era. Lisa continuously uses the Polish and working-class citizens' uprisings and obvious disapproval in Chicago during this time as her main demographic. One of the most compromising facts that Lisa McGirr points towards is the hard-working hours and heightened workload during the war for these Americans. McGirr references during her writing that the passage of the Volstead Act allowed the rich to keep alcohol that had been previously stored in the pre-prohibition era, which the poor and common citizen would not have the means to do. This legislation favored the affluent and further marginalized the working class.

The passage of the Volstead Act would further solidify the growing social and political gap between the working class and the elite, leading the working class to adopt a new slogan of “no beer, no work.” Lisa McGirr’s chapter on prohibition helps display the negative image created by Americans of immigrants, which ultimately led to a shift in ethnic support for the Democratic Party. Lisa McGirr, at times vague, referenced immigrant suburbs of Chicago with little mention of other heavily populous areas in the United States. This focus on Chicago could be due to its unique ethnic composition and its role as a hub for industrial labor during the era.

McGirr continues to reference the support of women against the anti-alcohol movement. Women’s support towards prohibition can be directly correlated with the entanglement of alcohol and PTSD. Alcohol worked as a temporary pacifier for men returning home from World War I. However, during this time there was no professional diagnosis for PTSD, leaving many men untreated and ultimately forgotten. This disturbingly unthought-out process led to men returning from the wars and creating a new life within the bars. This flawed system created a demography of women supporting prohibition to save their broken homes that had been created by what doctors at the time coined shell shock (McGirr, 2016).

Impact and Conclusion

“Bootleg, Moonshine, and Home Brew” is a perfectly written article on the demographic changes and impact of prohibition on the industrialized cities of America during the prohibition era. However, at times it’s hard to believe that the statistics and facts put forward represent the rest of the growing rural and suburban population of the early 20th century. With the new affordability of the automobile, which would create an easily accessible route for bootleg, moonshine, and home brew to be transported and delivered anywhere in the continental U.S., the prohibition era had far-reaching effects beyond the urban centers. The automobile not only facilitated the distribution of illegal alcohol but also played a role in shaping the social dynamics of the era, as it allowed for greater mobility and interaction between different social classes (McGirr, 2016).

Overall, the prohibition era, as discussed by McGirr, highlights the complexities of government policy and its unintended consequences on various demographics within the United States. It serves as a reminder of how legislation aimed at social reform can sometimes deepen existing societal divisions.

References

McGirr, L. (2016). The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State. W.W. Norton & Company.