When I used to teach my college classes, each student did a presentation from a preselected list of about fifty options. Unsurprisingly, I don’t think a single semester went by without someone choosing 1920s Prohibition. America’s “Noble Experiment” with moral purity still fascinates people today. Especially when they are young, adventuresome, and, shall we say, not interested in repeating 1920s Prohibition.

(Note: Prohibition lasted until 1933 in the U.S. But, generally, we associate it with the life and culture of the 1920s, thus my use of the term 1920s Prohibition.)

But, although some people described Prohibition as a noble experiment meant to improve morality, I think the story is a little bigger than that. It wasn’t just about morality. But to understand the larger impact of 1920s Prohibition, first, let’s look at some ways it changed life in America.

1920s Prohibition Facts

Generally speaking, rural people and women tended to favor Prohibition, along with reform-minded people in more urban areas. Religious leaders and their followers also tended to support the idea. Men and city dwellers were less likely to approve of Prohibition. These were the general tendencies.

And, make no mistake, drinking could be a substantial problem. It was a core part of male culture, of masculinity. A rite of passage for young men was to put down money at a bar without being refused. Saloons were a critical part of working class culture prior to 1920s Prohibition.

This was okay—to a point. Some men knew their limit and drank accordingly. But many men went past that point. It was common enough for men to drink away family savings, not show up to work because they were hung over, or behave badly because of intoxication. That was part of the reason for Prohibition in the first place—forcing such men to reform and preventing the vice of alcohol from ruining their families.

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Women did not frequent bars before the 1920s. Not the reputable women, anyway. Bars were bastions of manliness. They served other useful purposes, however. Bars also functioned as informal employment agencies—a place to seek work or find workers. When located in ethnic neighborhoods, they also helped immigrants become accustomed to life in America.

This changed in the 1920s. Without alcohol to serve, former bars either morphed into or were replaced by clubs offering entertainment or something closer to modern restaurants. (Some served alcohol on the sly, too, of course.)

Interestingly, this helped remove the stigma on men and women going out together. Men wouldn’t lose their manliness being seen eating with a woman in public, and women wouldn’t lose their virtue without alcohol to debauch them (or their male companion).

1920s Prohibition and Organized Crime

So, while women stated “Lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours,” men were more likely to chant “We want beer.” But, on occasion, people crossed the lines and gender tendencies flipped.

Prohibition created a class of people comparatively rare heretofore in the United States—female criminals not involved with prostitution. Many people broke the law and made liquor for themselves at home. Some of these lawbreakers were female.

Police and judges sometimes struggled with how to treat middle-class women who violated Prohibition laws. The tendency was to assume a husband was behind it all. But that wasn’t always true. Mothers, and even grandmothers, went before the courts and confessed that stills belonged to them and no one else.

Likewise with women caught patronizing speakeasys. Partly because bars had been places for men to drink, when women joined men at clubs serving illegal alcohol, this caused society to reconsider the entire issue of female lawbreaking.

In addition, of course, America had gangsters, Al Capone and his type, who realized the profits possible through breaking prohibition laws. Hollywood has made such figures famous, to the point I probably don’t need to elaborate on their activities. Suffice it to write that organized crime tried to cash in on peoples’ desire to drink. But I thought that the effect of 1920s Prohibition on female criminality would be new to most readers. That’s why I’ve chosen to elaborate on that in this section instead.

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Why the 1920s?

It’s a good question. Of all the decades of American history, why start Prohibition in 1920?

One reason, I think, was immigration. Recall that, prior to 1921, the U.S. had few real restrictions on immigration. More than ten million people immigrated to America between 1900 and 1920. World War 1 slowed the pace a bit, but still, this was a major influx of people.

Not all Americans approved of this. The nation was also urbanizing quickly during these years. (The 1920s is when the U.S. crossed an interesting line—less than half its population lived in rural areas by 1930.) These growing cities had major problems with managing their growth. Housing, sanitation, institutions to improve public safety—all took time to develop.

Thus, some urban Americans looked around and saw disorder of various kinds. They didn’t like it. Someone must be at fault. What had changed in recent years? The masses of immigrants were one change. Perhaps immigrants, with their ethnic neighborhoods, foreign languages, and Old World customs, were the problem. Forcing them to reform, therefore, and stop drinking, might decrease urban vices like crime.

Other Reasons

Dislike of immigrants wouldn’t be the only cause, of course. The years 1900 to 1920 are known as the Progressive Era in American history. These years saw a number of reforms—national women’s suffrage, for instance. Some of these reforms centered around moral issues. Putting an end to alcohol consumption seemed a natural culmination of these reforms to its supporters.

It’s also true that prohibition existed prior to 1920. It simply wasn’t nationwide until that year. So, in that respect, 1920s Prohibition was something the nation had been building toward for the better part of a century. Prior to 1920, about ten states had statewide prohibition, about ten had no restrictions on drinking anywhere, and the rest had a mix of counties that allowed alcohol and counties that didn’t.

Another reason is, for lack of a better way to describe it, that some people simply enjoy imposing their morality on others. Once in a while, enough of the country is willing to go along with such people that nationwide morality laws become a possibility. Especially when the moral absolutists can blend their appeal with other issues that people care about, like immigration.

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Consequences

Prohibition lasted until 1933. It had been a campaign issue in the 1932 presidential election (Herbert Hoover wanted to maintain it, Franklin Roosevelt called for ending the ban on alcohol) but, given the problems the U.S. faced by 1932, that election’s outcome wasn’t in much doubt.

The final tallies regarding 1920s Prohibition are interesting. Drinking did decrease. So did absenteeism from work. Some of the harm it had done to families decreased accordingly.

But this benefit seemed to come at a cost the nation discovered it didn’t want to pay. Some people simply enjoy drinking, and they missed a favorite recreational activity. Enforcement of the ban on alcohol proved difficult. Not only because policing morality is difficult, but because banning alcohol also created new groups of lawbreakers that authorities had to watch out for.

Not only that, the size of the government bureaucracy in 1920s America was much smaller than it is today. The national government’s ability to enforce a complete ban on alcohol proved difficult for that reason alone. It became more difficult still when some states realized their citizens wanted alcohol and proved uncooperative in assisting the federal government in its efforts.

All this is why the title of this post questioned whether 1920s Prohibition was simply a noble experiment. An experiment it may have been, but that doesn’t begin to describe the impact it had on American society. I’ve highlighted some of the consequences in this post. Perhaps you can think of others.

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