Prohibition: Not Truly A Mafia Monopoly

In the early 1920’s most of America regarded prohibition as a moral triumph and many Americans were eager to comply with the law. However some during this period saw the entry into the 1920’s and Warren G. Harding’s “Return to Normalcy” as a release from the patriotism and reform politics of WWI. Since the 18th amendment failed to make drinking a serious crime an illicit market began to form in response to growing demand (Clark 144). When prohibition first took effect saloons across the country shut their doors and closed down, but America was far from dry and by the mid 1920’s hundreds of thousands of speakeasies were in full swing. Supplying the liquor to these illegal nightclubs were the bootleggers, enterprising businessmen in the informal economy of the time. Although popular depiction in movies, literature, and TV has it that all the alcohol in the country ran from the hands of the gangland crimelords, that isn’t really the case. Most of the alcohol came from indepe...