The Eighteenth Amendment introduced Prohibition across the United States in January 1920. (a) What were the main provisions of the Volstead Act? [4] (b) Why...

The bar chart shows the dramatic growth in US car ownership from 7 million in 1919 to 23 million by 1929, illustrating the consumer boom that transformed American society. Prohibition, introduced in the same year car ownership began its rapid rise, had very different consequences for American life.

(a) Main provisions of the Volstead Act [4 marks]

• The Volstead Act (officially the National Prohibition Act, passed October 1919) provided the enforcement mechanism for the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
• It prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume.
• Personal consumption of alcohol was not directly criminalised; individuals could legally drink alcohol they already possessed before the Act took effect.
• Federal agents from the Bureau of Prohibition were authorised to enforce the law, with penalties including fines and imprisonment for violations.

(b) Why the campaign for Prohibition gained support before 1920 [6 marks]

• Organised pressure groups: The Anti-Saloon League (founded 1893) and the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU, founded 1873) had campaigned for decades, building a powerful national movement through local chapters, lobbying and political pressure.
• Religious conviction: Protestant churches, particularly in rural America and the South, associated alcohol with sin, moral decline and the corruption of family life. The temperance movement had strong religious roots.
• Social problems: Alcohol was blamed for poverty, domestic violence, crime and social disorder. Saloons were seen as centres of vice, gambling and political corruption.
• First World War arguments: During the war (1917-18), grain conservation became a patriotic duty. Prohibition supporters argued that grain used for brewing should feed soldiers and allies instead.
• Anti-German sentiment: Many of America's largest breweries (Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Schlitz) had German-American owners. Anti-German feeling during the war made it easier to attack the brewing industry.
• State-level precedent: By 1919, 33 states had already enacted their own prohibition laws, demonstrating widespread public support for a federal ban.

(c) 'Prohibition did more harm than good.' How far do you agree? [10 marks]

Evidence that Prohibition caused harm:

• It created a vast illegal market for alcohol, controlled by organised crime gangs. Gangsters like Al Capone in Chicago built criminal empires worth tens of millions of dollars through bootlegging, speakeasies and corruption.
• Gang violence escalated dramatically. The St Valentine's Day Massacre (14 February 1929), in which Capone's men murdered seven members of a rival gang, became a symbol of Prohibition-era lawlessness.
• Corruption spread through law enforcement, the judiciary and politics as bootleggers bribed police officers, judges and politicians to look the other way.
• Illegal 'moonshine' and industrial alcohol caused thousands of deaths from poisoning because unregulated production had no safety standards.
• The federal government lost significant tax revenue from legal alcohol sales, while spending heavily on largely ineffective enforcement. Only 1,500 agents were assigned to enforce the law across the entire country.
• Speakeasies (illegal drinking establishments) proliferated. By 1925, New York alone was estimated to have between 30,000 and 100,000 speakeasies.

Evidence that Prohibition had some positive effects:

• Alcohol consumption initially fell by an estimated 30-50% in the early years, particularly among the working class.
• Hospital admissions for alcohol-related illness declined, and some measures of domestic violence and absenteeism from work improved.
• Rural and Protestant communities, which had campaigned hardest for Prohibition, continued to support it throughout the 1920s.

Conclusion: On balance, Prohibition did more harm than good. While it initially reduced alcohol consumption, the law proved unenforceable on a national scale, empowered organised crime, corrupted public institutions, and was eventually repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in December 1933. Its failure demonstrated the limits of using legislation to enforce moral behaviour on a population that did not universally share those moral convictions.