Alcohol: A History

13. PROHIBITIONS, 1910–1935: Noble Experiments, Ignoble Failures

256 13 Prohibitions 1910–1935 noble experiments, ignoble failures The word “prohibition” is often shorthand for prohibition in the United States, the national policy in force from 1920 to 1933 that banned the production and sale of beverage alcohol throughout the country. This period, together with the antialcohol movements that led to it, has dominated American histories of alcohol. But although American prohibition is important to the alcohol and broader cultural history of the United States, it is also important in the wider, global context. While American prohibition was arguably the most stringent policy of its kind enacted on a comprehensive national basis since Islam banned the making and drinking of alcohol by Muslims (and by others in Muslim-ruled territories), it was far from the only policy of its kind at the time it was introduced. Many countries enacted prohibition laws during and soon after the First World War. They included Russia, which went dry at the outbreak of war in 1914, and its successor Soviet state, which continued the imperial prohibition policies into the 1920s. Some Scandinavian countries passed prohibition legislation , as did some Mexican states and most Canadian provinces. The British government imposed prohibition policies on the indigenous populations of some of its African colonies in 1919. These examples generally fell within the same period, but there were even earlier, race-based examples: the U.S. government imposed prohibition on Native American populations during the 1800s, and the government of the Republic of Transvaal and its successor white South African governments did so on native African populations from 1896 to the 1960s. prohibitions, 1910–1935 257 Prohibition policies have seldom been total and absolute, and there is always a question of how strictly we should define prohibition. Some prohibition policies made exceptions for lower-alcohol beverages such as light beer and wine while banning higher-alcohol spirits; some banned production and sale but not consumption, while others included consumption; some allowed consumption for religious or medical purposes. Even under Islamic law, according to some interpretations, there is some allowance for alcohol as a medical remedy when no alternative is available.1 In Britain’s African colonies, indigenous peoples were permitted to make and consume their traditional grain-based beer and palm wine, which were generally considered harmless, but not to drink the stronger European alcoholic beverages. All these examples are qualified versions of prohibition, but all represented serious attempts to deprive specific populations of alcohol or, at the very least, to severely restrict their access to it. Russia first introduced nationwide prohibition when Tsar Nicolas II decreed at the outbreak of the First World War that alcohol would not be produced or sold for the duration of the hostilities. This policy was based on the same considerations that motivated other wartime governments to restrict alcohol: the fear that alcohol would disrupt military discipline on the battlefronts and impair industrial efficiency on the home front. But although other participants in the war eventually adopted measures such as reducing the alcohol content of beer and limiting the hours during which alcohol could be sold, as the British government did, Russia opted for outright prohibition. The tsarist government was able to do so not only for the practical reason that the state’s monopoly on vodka production made it easy to control, but also because it was an autocratic regime that believed it would not have to face a political backlash such as democratic governments feared. In Britain, for example, Lloyd George’s administration was reluctant to take alcohol restrictions too far because a pint (or more) of beer at the pub was a staple of men who were not only workers but also voters. As we have seen (Chapter 12), the Russian ban on alcohol production was widely ignored during the First World War. Clandestinely and not-soclandestinely produced vodka quickly replaced legal alcohol, and consumption not only continued among civilians (including the imperial family) but was widespread among Russian troops. And even though the autocratic tsarist government believed itself immune from any backlash against its wartime policies, including prohibition, mounting dissatisfaction reinforced the opposition to the tsar and paved the way for revolutions in 1917. 258 prohibitions, 1910–1935 Ironically, the adoption of prohibition had brought the tsarist government to the same position (although for different reasons) that some of its socialist opponents had been advocating for decades. While the government’s...