Cool! Ken Burns' next film is about Prohibition!

[TheMightyFavog]

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/

PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.

The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse.

But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality. Thugs became celebrities, responsible authority was rendered impotent. Social mores in place for a century were obliterated. Especially among the young, and most especially among young women, liquor consumption rocketed, propelling the rest of the culture with it: skirts shortened. Music heated up. America's Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp.

Prohibition turned law-abiding citizens into criminals, made a mockery of the justice system, caused illicit drinking to seem glamorous and fun, encouraged neighborhood gangs to become national crime syndicates, permitted government officials to bend and sometimes even break the law, and fostered cynicism and hypocrisy that corroded the social contract all across the country. With Prohibition in place, but ineffectively enforced, one observer noted, America had hardly freed itself from the scourge of alcohol abuse – instead, the "drys" had their law, while the "wets" had their liquor.

[Bucky]

1. But it did reduce alcohol consumption

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. OP sez "liquor consumption rocketed"

Like a rocket.

A rocket of booze.

[rurallib]

4. not from what I have heard. The one big thing Prohibition legacy

is the mixed drink.
Coke, orange juice, 7-up - anything to kill the taste of bathtub gin (or worse).
And women more and more began to drink.

[Bucky]

8. In terms of gross domestic alcohol consumption, it went down under Prohibition

It didn't end, but it did get reduced when they outlawed it.

Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition
by Jeffrey A. Miron, Jeffrey Zwiebel
NBER Working Paper No. 3675 (Also Reprint No. r1563)
Issued in July 1991

We estimate the consumption of alcohol during Prohibition using mortality, mental health and crime statistics. We find that alcohol consumption fell sharply at the beginning of Prohibition, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level. During the next several years, however, alcohol consumption increased sharply, to about 60-70 percent of its pre-prohibition level. The level of consumption was virtually the same immediately after Prohibition as during the latter part of Prohibition, although consumption increased to approximately its pre-Prohibition level during the subsequent decade.

Published: The American Economic Review, Vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 242-247, (May 1991).

[trof]

2. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

:-)

[fishwax]

5. sounds interesting -- looking forward to it

:kick:

[IcyPeas]

6. speaking of which

when does the new season of "Boardwalk Empire" start?

[pokerfan]

7. Fortunately, we won't make that mistake again!

[MicaelS]

10. Really? We did the same thing with drugs...

And some people want to do the same thing with guns.

[pokerfan]

11. Hence the facepalm...

Guess I should have used :sarcasm:.

[Yavin4]

9. Who Will Narrate? Lindsay Lohan?

That would be cool if it were true.

[Brother Buzz]

12. Surely, Burns will be able to finally solve the mystery of Al Capone's vaults