The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

I just finished reading Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent.  The book is excellent.  It provides the history of the temperance movement, the Anti-Saloon League and the progressive movement in general.  It covers the racism and xenophobia which helped pass Prohibition, along with the temperance movement's support of the income tax and women's suffrage to advance their goal. 

The coverage of the legal and extralegal methods of accessing booze was fascinating.  I didn't realize that home brewing, cider making and wine making was legal, or that sacramental wine was legal or that doctors could prescribe pints of whiskey for medicinal purposes. 

Reading the story, I saw a dilemma.  I felt no sympathy for the temperance movement and the anti-immigrant policies of the progressives, yet I also supported the idea of the income tax and women's suffrage.  Meanwhile, when the right-wing began to support repealing Prohibition so they could try to kill the income tax, I could only agree with the repealing Prohibition part.  It reminded me that I generally can't get behind all the ideas of any political or ideological group, and take more of the 'cafeteria Catholic' approach to politics.  I, like most people, tend to expect somebody will be 'right' in my opinion on every issue, but really, that person isn't out there.  The various policies of the progressive movement and Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century reminded me of that fact.