he creation of the Women's Christian Temperance League and others in the late nineteenth century to the Noble Experiment, Prohibition, from 1920 to 1934.
Kobler draws on statements and writings by people who lived through these different eras, and he quotes their words as he describes the time in which they lived and relates what they have to say to larger movements and groups. He paints a picture of life in America prior to prohibition and shows how saloons were becoming ubiquitous. When Prohibition was passed, each state was allowed to pass enabling laws or laws to implement provisions of the amendment and to provide for enforcement at the state and local levels. Kobler also describes one of the effects of this law--the growth in amateur brewing, so great that by 1929 it was estimated that 700,000,000 gallons were being produced at home.
Kobler also recounts the growth in organized crime around bootlegging. The author cites newspaper and police reports from different parts of the country to show how pervasive this new form of business beca
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