In the United States, this was done by means of the Eighteenth Amendment to the national Constitution (ratified January 16, 1919) and the Volstead Act

(passed October 28, 1919). Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. The Volstead Act was amended to allow

"3.2 beer" (3.2 percent alcohol by weight) by passage of the Blaine Act on February 17, 1933. The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed later in 1933 with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment. Prohibition also referred to that part of the Temperance movement which wanted alcohol made illegal. Prohibitionists had some success even before national prohibition; in 1905 three American states had already outlawed alcohol, by 1912 it was up to nine states, and by 1916, legal prohibition was already in effect in 26 of the 48 states. The Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed nationwide prohibition, explicitly gives states the right to restrict or ban the purchase and sale of alcohol; this has...