The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which imposed national prohibition, took effect on January 16, 1920. The measure sought to eliminate alcohol usage in America by outlawing the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol in the United States. It was a seemingly victorious conclusion to a fifty-year battle for temperance (the reduction or abstinence from alcohol). But the "noble experiment," as President Hoover called Prohibition, had many fatal shortcomings. One of the biggest mistakes lawmakers made was underestimating the willingness of the general public to break the law. Although Prohibition gave a boost to bootlegging, rum-running, and organized crime, it was the patronage of ordinary citizens which kept the estimated thirty thousand speakeasies (illegal bars) in New York alone in business. Many critics of Prohibition, including New York politician Fiorello La Guardia, argued that the flagrant disregard for Prohibition laws could undermine the...