In January 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment became law, banning the manufacture, transportation, importation, and sale of intoxicating liquors in the United States. Known as Prohibition, the amendment was the culmination of more than a century of attempts to remove alcohol from society by various temperance organizations. Many large cities and states actually went dry in 1918. Americans could no longer legally drink or buy alcohol. The people who illegally made, imported, or sold alcohol during this time were called bootleggers.
In contrast to its original intent, Prohibition, a tenet of the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s, caused a permanent change in the way the nation viewed authority, the court system, and wealth and class. Particularly damning was the lack of enforcement, which led to the rise of the mob and notorious criminals such as Al Capone. As a result, bootlegging became big business in the era, often as immigrants took hold of power in urban centers. “The liquor control school of thought of the 1890s–1930s offered a clear alternative to alcohol prohibition, much as today some strands of harm-reduction thinking …show more content…
Tom has been investigating Gatsby and has learned some facts about him which he uses to try to destroy Daisy’s illusions. The most significant accusations are on page 133 in my edition of the novel.“I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were.” He turned to us and spoke rapidly. “He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t wrong.”Gatsby doesn’t deny Tom’s accusation. Obviously Tom has gathered too much damaging information about him, and the more Tom talks the worse it seems to everyone present
In contrast to its original intent, Prohibition, a tenet of the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s, caused a permanent change in the way the nation viewed authority, the court system, and wealth and class. Particularly damning was the lack of enforcement, which led to the rise of the mob and notorious criminals such as Al Capone. As a result, bootlegging became big business in the era, often as immigrants took hold of power in urban centers. “The liquor control school of thought of the 1890s–1930s offered a clear alternative to alcohol prohibition, much as today some strands of harm-reduction thinking …show more content…
Tom has been investigating Gatsby and has learned some facts about him which he uses to try to destroy Daisy’s illusions. The most significant accusations are on page 133 in my edition of the novel.“I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were.” He turned to us and spoke rapidly. “He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t wrong.”Gatsby doesn’t deny Tom’s accusation. Obviously Tom has gathered too much damaging information about him, and the more Tom talks the worse it seems to everyone present