Prohibition in the United States

By the late nineteenth century the campaign for temperance had shifted to a drive for Prohibition—or, as H.L. Mencken put it, anti-alcohol groups shifted from the "hair-shirt" to the "flaming sword." Backed by the evangelical Protestant movement, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Anti-Saloon League, a constitutional amendment to prohibit intoxicating drink was proposed in 1913. On December 22, 1917, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, which was declared ratified on January 29, 1919. Section one read: "After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." The Volstead Act, passed by Congress in September 1919 to codify the newly ratified constitutional amendment, defined "intoxicating liquor" as any beverage that...