PBS - Prohibition 1of3 A Nation of Drunkards

PROHIBITION,a three-part documentary series, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick,explores the extraordinary story of what happens when a freedom-lovingnation outlaws the sale of intoxicating liquor–and the disastrousunintended consequences that follow. This utterly relevant cautionarytale raises profound questions about the proper role of government andthe limits of legislating morality. When the country goes dry in 1920,after a century of debate, millions of law-abiding Americans becomelawbreakers overnight. Here are the stories of the pettywhiskey-jobbers, big-time bootleggers, and brutal gangsters; theflappers who danced the Charleston in New York speakeasies; and thefamilies who stomped grapes in basements and made moonshine inbackyards. But beyond the cocktails, this is a darker story about whathappens when lobbyists divide the country with wedge issues; thecontempt unleashed by smear campaigns; and the perils of unfundedmandates. By the 1930s, the Noble Experiment has bitterly divided thenation into wets, drys, and hypocrites. In 1933, with the country in thethroes of the Great Depression, Americans have finally had enough–andrally to repeal 18th Amendment and put an end to Prohibition.