What in Americans History Could Lead to Prohibition?
As a History student, I was taught to look at the factors that caused an event in history to unfold. For example, one cannot study the American Revolution without studying the causes that led to the anger of the colonists and their reasons to revolt against England. The same is true for prohibition. To truly understand how alcohol could become such a problem that, members of a society would want to ban it, it is important to look at alcohol’s history in society. In the 1600 and 1700’s, there were very few things available to drink. One did not want to take a lot of chances with the water and the unpasteurized milk of the time. Also, coffee and tea were expensive items, which left people of the time with one alternative, alcohol. This kind of lifestyle led to some alarming statistics on the average American’s use of alcohol. By the 1820’s the average American was drinking 7 gallons of pure alcohol. This is the equivalent of: • 70 gallons of beer, or • 39 gallons of wine, or • 15.5 gallo
