From the bestselling author of The Last Emperor comes this rip-roaring history of the governmentâs attempt to end Americaâs love affair with liquorâwhich failed miserably. On January 16, 1920, America went dry. For the next thirteen years, the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the making, selling, or transportation of âintoxicating liquors,â heralding a new era of crime and corruption on all levels of society. Instead of eliminating alcohol, Prohibition spurred more drinking than ever before.
Formerly law-abiding citizens brewed moonshine, became rum- runners, and frequented speakeasies. Druggists, who could dispense âmedicinal quantitiesâ of alcohol, found their customer base exploding overnight. So many people from all walks of life defied the ban that Will Rogers famously quipped, âProhibition is better than no liquor at all.â Here is the full, rollicking story of those tumultuous days, from the flappers of the Jazz Age and the âbeautiful and the damnedâ who drank their lives away in smoky speakeasies to bootlegging gangstersâPretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Caponeâand the notorious St. Valentineâs Day Massacre. Edward Behr paints a portrait of an era that changed the country forever.