And women’s suffrage was needed to ensure the passage of the Prohibition Amendment. Both the 16th and the 19th Amendments to the Constitution, he argues, were passed principally because it was believed that only an income tax could make up for the revenue dip if governments lost the revenue from excise taxes on alcohol. Okrent makes a strong case that the movement played a much greater role in progressive politics than is generally thought. Often dismissed as an amusing but unimportant episode, the great social experiment of Prohibition was in reality the culmination of one of the most influential social movements in the history of the United States. This well-researched and thoughtful book casts new light on Prohibition, one of the oddest, most important, and least understood American historical developments in the twentieth century.
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