Thirteen Years That Changed America Chapter Summaries

Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America, by Edward Behr, gives a detailed account of an era where the United States learned that one really does not appreciate what they have until it is gone. Alcohol was always the American pastime, since before the revolution. Behr vividly describes from the time where America was in its beginnings and alcohol was used for medicinal purposes, then when aversion began to grow against “intoxicating beverages”, and finally to that fateful night on January 16th, 1920, when the United States went dry. Of course, thirteen years later on December 5th, 1933, the 18th Amendment was repealed due to overwhelming protest, and to this day stands as the only Amendment in American history to be retracted. Edward Behr wrote several novels before his 2007 death in Paris at age eighty-one and was a famed war correspondent. Some of his writings were remarked as “controversial”, all giving thorough depictions of the time he spent globetrotting and watching from the sidelines as wars unfolded. Prohibition… was published in 1996 and is hailed as “Informative and entertaining from start to finish.” by …show more content…
Chapter three accounts how women were very powerful, from the formation of the Women’s Christian Temperance movement, who actively staged peaceful protests, to the radical antics of Carrie Nation, “hatchetizing” bars across the United States; “Smash! Smash! For Jesus’ sake, smash!” Chronologically, this is also when some states began going dry and prohibiting the sale of alcohol. Chapter five corresponds with the progression into the early twentieth century, where even more resentment was spawned not only to alcohol, but the people whose culture and lifestyle involved drink. German relations were bitter due to the beginning of World War I, so the beer they brought and created was