On July 1, 1919, Boston bars ran dry within hours as wartime prohibition took hold. This deep dive covers the 13-year national experiment from 1920 to 1933 and how it failed while permanently changing American society.

We examine the saloon culture and political machines that fueled the dry movement, Carrie Nation’s hatchet raids, anti-German sentiment during World War I, and the income tax that replaced alcohol revenue. Then we explore loopholes for the wealthy, medical whiskey prescriptions, Wayne Wheeler’s pressure politics, organized crime, the deadly poisoning of industrial alcohol, speakeasies, jazz, and the Depression-era repeal.

• How brewery-owned saloons used salty free lunches and served as hubs for political machines
• Why the 16th Amendment and federal income tax made prohibition financially possible
• The private possession loophole, doctors prescribing whiskey and George Cassidy supplying Congress
• How mandated denaturing of industrial alcohol led to thousands of poisoning deaths
• Why speakeasies normalized women drinking in public and helped spread jazz to integrated audiences