It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places. Over time, their protests, petitions, and activism paid off─when a Constitutional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified, it was hailed as the end of public drunkenness, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills related to booze. Instead, it began a decade of lawlessness, when children smuggled (and drank) illegal alcohol, the most upright citizens casually broke the law, and a host of notorious gangsters entered the public eye. Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of unique characters from the era, this fascinating book looks at the rise and fall of the disastrous social experiment known as Prohibition.


禁酒令起先立意良善，婦女與民間領袖憂心酒精對家庭的危害，開始推行一場運動，要求政府立法，在公共場合禁酒。歷經時日，藉著抗議、請願等行動，他們終於達成目的。美國通過了憲法修正案，禁止銷售和飲用含酒精飲料，此舉被譽為能終結與酒相關的社會弊病，解決公共場合酒醉、酗酒及其他社會問題。然而，事實並非如此，禁酒令反倒成了接下來 10 年目無法紀的開端，孩童走私（甚至飲用）非法含酒精飲料，本來循規蹈矩的公民恣意違反法律規定，而大群惡名昭彰的幫派分子更是囂張至極。本書詳載當代的藝術、照片、軼事，以及焦點人物的肖像，帶領讀者一窺此災難性的社會實驗──禁酒令的興衰。