Prohibition

From Hatchets to Hoods: The Mayhem of a Dry America

This series focuses on the events and people that made a difference during a turbulent and influential time in our nation’s history. From the speakeasy door to the Oval Office, Prohibition brought out the best — and the worst — in America.

From Hoovervilles to Hummingbirds in Space

Do you celebrate National Beer Day? Or even know about it? That's thanks to FDR and his signing of the Cullen-Harrison Act. Celebrated across the country in 1933, the act was one small step to the ratification of the 21st Amend and the final nail in the coffin for Prohibition.

The Tide Begins to Turn

At its beginning, prohibition was spearheaded by outspoken women. Women who saw a need for social change and then set up the scaffolding to build, what they thought, would be a better America. So maybe it won’t be a surprise to hear that the repeal of Prohibition began in pretty much the same way.

Luck Be a Lady Governor

Mid-1920s, leaders and law enforcement could go one of two ways: they could crack down on Volstead Act violator or they could look the other way. Meet the first two women governors in the nation’s history–and a couple of lawmen–and learn how they handled their duties during Prohibition.

White Squares Off Against the KKK

The Anti-Saloon League recruited the KKK to join its mission to make Prohibition the law of the land. Klan members themselves weren’t specifically pro-Temperance, but they used dry laws as a way to target & perpetrate violence against Black Americans, immigrants, Jews, and Catholics.

A Movie and a Man Who Revived the Klan

How did one of the most popular movies in the country–a blockbuster of epic proportions–fuel the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan? The KKK and the prohibitionists of the 1920s worked hand-in-hand to turn America into a dry, white, Protestant-ruled nation.

A Cocktail Toast to the Mob

Let's talk about two things that go hand in hand with the enforcement of dry laws: crime and cocktails. The spread of both was a direct consequence of the 18th amendment as mobsters ruled the violent industry of bootlegging and the rough liquor they sold was made more palatable with mixers.

The Suckers and Celebrities of the NYC Speakeasy Scene

In this Episode of Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, it’s a battle between the lawman and the barkeep; we’re going to explore the New York jazz and speakeasy scene. Along the way, we’ll meet a few people who embodied that old adage: sometimes appearances can be deceiving.

A Physician, a Rabbi, and a Bootlegger Walk into a Pharmacy

By 1920, America was officially a dry country. In theory. In practice, the law came with enough loopholes that opportunists found plenty of ways to make, trade, sell, and guzzle vast quantities of alcohol. Learn all about it on Here's Where It Get's Interesting with Sharon McMahon.

The Whiskey-Guzzling Womanizer in the White House

As the country went dry at the start of 1920, Americans were ready for a new leader. They elected Warren Harding, a handsome Ohioan who prided himself on his all-American principles. But behind closed doors, Warren Harding, 29th President of the United States, hid a plethora of dark secrets.

If Mabel Had Worn Trousers

Meet the most powerful woman in America during the Prohibition era. Mabel Walker Willebrandt was the Assistant Attorney General. It was her job to enforce the 18th amendment and prosecute those who flouted the new laws of Prohibition. Learn with Sharon McMahon on Here's Where It Get's Interesting.

How to Train Kids in the Practice of Temperance

In this Episode about Prohibition, we learn more about the crusade to turn America into a dry nation. It may surprise you to learn that it wasn’t spearheaded by only white Christian women who disapproved of saloons and whiskey.

Carrying a Nation into Prohibition

Welcome to From Hatchets to Hoods: The Mayhem of a Dry America! We’ll start a number of years before the iconic 18th Amendment went into effect, with a growing movement born of domestic and religious fervor, and the women who were gutsy enough to face social problems head on… a hatchet in hand.