Leader
Principal, Bard High School Early College
About the Seminar
Prohibition bred glamour — speakeasies, flappers, the Jazz age. Prohibition bred crime — gangsters, smuggling, shoot-outs.
It also pitted country folk against city dwellers, Protestants against Catholics, the native-born against immigrants. It promoted women’s liberation, stoked racial fears, made drinking alcohol an act of treason, and turned America into a nation of informers, all this while raising fundamental questions about the role of government in the lives of Americans and challenging definitions of American identity.
Learn how to combine Ken Burns’ series Prohibition with primary sources to teach this rich and exciting period.
Supporters
Funding is provided by Bank of America; Public Broadcasting Service; Corporation for Public Broadcasting; The National Endowment for the Humanities; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; the Montrone Family through The Penates Foundation; and Park Foundation, Inc.
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Assigned Readings
- Diary in America, by Frederick Marryat (excerpt)
- How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob Riis (excerpt)
- “Jewish Quarter Saloons,” map
- “Make the Map All White,” advertisement
- “Pay Envelope,” advertisement
- War Prohibition Flyer
- “A Glimpse behind the Mask of Prohibition,” by Percy Andreae
- Hops Telegrams (2)
- What Prohibition Has Done to America, by Fabian Franklin (excerpt)
- The Amendments
- “Deaths due to Alcohol,” chart, Cook County
- National Survey of Conditions Under Prohibition
- Speakeasy Nights 1, The New Yorker, 1927
- Speakeasy Nights 2, The New Yorker, 1928
- “Calls Nightclubs Rendezvous of Vice,” New York Times, 1927
- Photos of two bar scenes
- “Enright on How to Enforce Prohibition,” New York Times, 1924
- “Mr. Buckner Explains,” by Morris Markey, The New Yorker
- Fiorella H. LaGuardia’s testimony before the U.S. Senate, 1926
- Student Testimony Against Prohibition
- “Dr. Norris Assails Dry Law Fatalities,” New York Times, 1928
- The Federal Council of Churches, Testimony before the U.S. Senate
- “When is a Law Right?” Wall Street Journal, 1929
- “Women Anti-Drys Launch New Drive,” New York Times, 1927
- “Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform,” poster
- The Repeal, President Roosevelt
