WAS PROHIBITION BOUND TO FAIL?

Authors Avatar
GCSE 1637 MODERN WORLD HISTORY COURSEWORK:

'WAS PROHIBITION BOUND TO FAIL?'

NAME: George Morrissey

TOTAL MARK: /50 = /25

[A] Study Sources A and B. How far do these two accounts agree about Prohibition?

In source A it mentions of the bad influence of saloons and other reasons why prohibition was enforced. Also in the wording it shows that alcohol was bad for example "bad influence of saloons" but the source goes into more detail about the criminal side of prohibition describing the criminality of Americans when this law was in place for example "No earlier law produced such widespread crime"

In Source B this passage goes straight in by describing alcohol as a "great evil." Also the wording like "victory" saying it as a triumph of banning the brewing of alcohol. Source B says things against prohibition as well but doesn't go into as much detail about it as source A does.

So from my point of view I do not believe source A goes far at all with agreeing with prohibition because it describes the criminal side more than the other side.

Whereas I believe source B backs up and agrees with prohibition because of the description and wording of the passage.

[B] Study Sources C and D. Were the artists of these two posters for or against Prohibition?

Looking at both sources and when they were published I noticed that they were both from before the prohibition so obviously this is trying to get prohibition in America because there wouldn't be posters against prohibition even if it hadn't been put through law yet. Also looking at the first source, source C, there's a man giving his weeks wages for some alcohol and a sub picture of his poor family with a quote saying "it keeps its families and members always poor". So source C is against alcohol because it's saying that alcohol makes families poor.

Looking at source D there are 2 children waiting for there dad to come out of the saloon and the children are saying "daddy's in there, and so are our shoes and stockings and food and they'll never come out" this indicates that the father is drinking away in the saloon and spending all there money on alcohol.
Join now!


So after looking at both these sources I can strongly say that these two sources are for prohibition because it is showing the affects that alcohol has on the family. Also from my own knowledge I know that these posters were produced by the woman's Christian temperance union and anti-saloon league and these to groups were against alcohol and for prohibition.

[C] Study Sources E and F. Which of these two sources is the more reliable as evidence about Prohibition?

Looking firstly at source E, I read through it and noticed that all what this man ...

This is a preview of the whole essay