Prohibition 1920 Sources Question

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Prohibition 1920 Sources Question

Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S Constitution took away licences to do business from the brewers. Prohibition was introduced to help reduce alcohol abuse, to lower the amount of crime, to help marriages, and for religious and social reasons, and, because at this time, there was hatred towards Germany, and Germany was also a country renowned for producing large amounts of alcohol. Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.

.Source A is useful for studying the spread of prohibition in the United Sates.

This source was written by Martin Gilbert to show the spread of prohibition throughout America. This source was included in an American History Atlas, which makes it useful. This source was written in 1968, which makes it 35 years after prohibition was officially abolished. The source shows the spread of prohibition from 1845 - 1933. It shows in 1845 the states that had local prohibition, the territories, in which, the sale of alcohol was forbidden in 1845, and the sates, which were entirely, dry by 1915.

Although this does provide some information, there are problems with the map. It doesn't show which states were dry form 1915 until 1933 when prohibition was abolished. There was a wave of prohibition on the 16 of January 1920, when prohibition was enforced. This became the 18th Amendment to the US constitution to ban all forms of alcohol, the production, the sale, and even the possession of it could lead to heavy penalties. This was suppose to help mend the 'problems', such as the 'flappers', who were seen as a disgrace to all 'decent Americans. It was also meant to solve the problems of society, such as marriages, unwanted pregnancies and violence. All this was blamed on the influence of alcohol. The source doesn't mention any of these problems, how or even why prohibition spread through America. I don't have any proof of this source being politically correct, biased, or even any background information about the author, or his beliefs. But, I do have the reliability that it was published in a history atlas, which is valid in this case. I think that the factors above prove that this source does show the spread of prohibition well.

2.Historians wrote both sources B and C, yet they give different interpretations as to why prohibition was introduced in 1919.

Source B was written by Jack Watson, in 1981, a written source called 'Success in 2oth Century Affairs'. This source was intended to be a simple and easy text, written for British scholars to learn history. The source says that it was against American belief to drink alcohol because Americans who had German backgrounds often sold alcohol. Many people disliked the German people because of the First World War. Because of the Versailles Treaty, they still believe that the Germans were responsible for the war. Some people were still bitter because of the war, and the government, and officials used this as an excuse to make people agree with prohibition. The next source, source C, was written by another historian, Dr. Theodore Eversole, in 1972. It is taken from a History book, 'The culture of the USA in the 1920's', but we don't know the audience. This source bases the reasons for prohibition on the Methodist and Baptist churches, because they believed that if people drank wine, unblessed by God, that it was against the teachings, and this would make the community weaker. But, the source also mentions that many white 'southerners' were afraid of drunken blacks, and also that employers would be safer having sober, more able-working employees. The source again mentions God and country, and at this time, people believed in their religion, and were afraid that they would not receive God's protection, and that America would be destroyed under the influence of alcohol. This source does not tell us the consequences of prohibition, and doesn't tell us what happened after prohibition. Both sources have very different opinions, and show the variety of thoughts during, and after prohibition. There were many opinions at this time, and that is what made it easy for the people to become convinced that prohibition was the right thing for America during that time. This helped introduce the policy, but too many people disliked the policy, and were unwilling to co-operate with the law, and it proved that they still wanted alcohol, and were willing to pay large amounts of money for it.
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3.Source D is a photograph from the 1920's and source E is a drawing from the 1960's, both sources show the immediate aftermath of a raid on a speakeasy. Speakeasies were illegal clubs, which served alcohol to members. They could be found anywhere ranging from basements to office buildings.

These two sources both have evidence that America was trying to get rid of alcohol. I don't know who took the photograph, but I do know that it is a primary source, because it was taken during the 1920's. This particular source was taken to show agents for ...

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