s 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 supporting provisions of the amendment and providing 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 reports from different parts of the country to show how pervasive this new form of business became in a relatively short period of time. Bootlegged liquor came into the country from Canada and Mexico, often with the connivance of Customs officials and shipping clerks. The degree of the problem is evident from the fruits of enforcement:
From 1920 to 1930 federal prohibition agents arrested, in round numbers, 577,000 suspected
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