Prohibition

Posted: October 17th, 2013

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Prohibition

Materson, Lisa G. African American Women, Prohibition, and the 1928 Presidential Election. Journal of Women’s History, 2009. Vol. 21, 1: 63-86.

This article mainly focuses on gender and race on the influence of liquor prohibition in the 1928 presidential election, which was between Alfred E. Smith of the Democratic Party and Herbert Hoover of the Republican Party. The article focuses on the ways and the reasons the women from both parties, especially those from the Republican Party, used the Volstead Act to lure the women in the Democratic Party into the Republican Party. On the African American women’s part, it was about two issues. One, it was about the establishment of a movement that was well organized, which advocated the amendment of the prohibition act. Second, it was also about the important drift of African American voters to the Democratic Party during the main elections. As the author states, “Republican women’s support of prohibition was hardly representative of all African Americans- quite the opposite” (Materson 75). These actions mostly took place in the southern parts of the country.

Murphy, Mary. Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte, Montana. American Quarterly, 1994. Vol. 46: 174-194.

This article analyses the impact of the liquor prohibition in Montana, the Western Part of the United States. The writer explores a number of ways in which the eighteenth Amendment affected people’s lives in ways that had not been expected. The restructuring of the illegal trade of liquor gave women opportunities to make money out of the liquor business. As the author states, “…judges and juries, whose previous contact with females criminal had been… prostitutes, were confounded by grey-haired mothers appearing in their courts on bootlegging charges” (Murphy 177). Through this prohibition, gender roles that had not been familiar before were derived. The writer explains that the appropriate behavior of either gender is not dictated by biology.

Rose, Kenneth D. Wettest in the West: San Francisco and Prohibition in 1924. California History, 1986. Vol. 65, 4: 284-295.

This article explores the impact of the liquor prohibition in the city of San Francisco, which is in the West Coast of the United States. During the initial stages of the prohibition, many people were anti the prohibition of liquor. The author notes that by the end of the 19^th century, the ratio of saloons to residents was 1:96. The ratio was double the statistics in Chicago or New York. As the author states, “Not only was San Francisco viewed as one of the wettest cities in the Union, it also was a stronghold for the AAPA and WONPR” (Rose 285). The state of California was thus considered to be the most affected by the liquor business as compared to the other states. However, things took another toll when the repeal of the prohibition was suggested. San Franciscans were one of the few people who openly supported this repeal. They did this by defying the laws of enforcement and supporting the organizations that were anti-prohibition.