Prohibition

Without getting into all the threaded connections of Daniel Okrent, obituaries, Rotisserie baseball, and newspapers, Mr. Okrent's book, Last Call, the story of the era of Prohibition, sounds like a solid piece that recreates the era that produced legislation that fairly, as a book review claims, "preposterously" outlawed the production and consumption of alcohol.

I have no direct link to the Prohibition era other than all the stories I heard about it from the old-timers at my uncle's and father's flower shop. The family business even once fronted a speakeasy, Bellis's, now known as Pete's Tavern on 18th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan. Plenty of stories were heard about the drinking in the back, and the ladies upstairs. My father would have turned 18 when Prohibition ended, but I suspect his first drink and that of his brothers didn't start at the stroke of repeal.

Given this indirect linkage, Prohibition, you could say would occasionally be on my mind. And when it was, it was how an entire nation, then 48 states, could pass legislation that would ban alcohol. If I'm right about this, the Equal Rights Amendment never made into the books. Talk about taxing soda with sugar all you want, but wiping booze off the shelf has to be one of the more confounding legislative acts I've heard of. What were they thinking? Why were they thinking that?

Mr. Okrent's book apparently explains it quite well. Lobbying. Dry vs. Wet and Dry wins. The 18th Amendment was passed in 1920, and wasn't repealed until 1933. The taxes lost from the prior legal sale of alcohol would be made up by the income tax. Al Capone would be convicted of evading income tax. Talk about irony.

Being a fan of obituaries and of "recent" history I always try and think of what the people were like in a certain era. When were they born? Etc.

If the Amendment passes in 1920, then the adults spearheading its passage would likely have been at least 40 years old. That backs the calendar up to 1880, prior to my grandfather's birth. Back the calendar up another generation to their grandparents, and you're rolling back into 1850. Stage coaches and Indians. Thus, people with linkage to 1850, oral history and otherwise, are in charge in 1920.

The WSJ review by Russ Smith describes how Mr. Okrent fleshes out the Anti-Saloon League leader Wayne Wheeler. Districts are targeted for election change. Wheeler's people succeed mightily. In a still vastly rural nation, media counterweights seem to have no pull. They don't exist. It's got to be interesting.

I will admit, I haven't yet picked the book up myself, and I don't know if it has pictures. It's not listed as "illustrated." And at 468 pages, well, that's nearly as long as the era itself. But depending on how it's organized, the history and the climate of the times should be worth dipping into.

And if I won't be taking a nip myself, I will be taking a dip into it.

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