Ken Burns' "Prohibition" series on PBS

[ConvertedRepublican]

Has anybody seen this yet?
Burns makes a good case for saying this was forced on the American people, not as some religious awakening, but as simple government control.
Thoughts?

 

[phill4paul]

Very interesting series so far. Two things that I came away with from the first instalment... The income tax was enacted as a measure to make sure the government was still funded after the 18th amendment was passed. The tax on alcohol made up as much as 40% of the Federal taxes. Second Wheeler was able to insure success of his Annti-Saloon League by holding the 10% margin in any vote. He could thus insure that any politician that did not go along would be voted out. Such is the way in a close two-party system.

 

[DGambler]

I've got it recorded, but haven't watched it yet. What struck me about the "trailers" for it was you could easily change the word "Prohibition" to the words "The War of Drugs" and the premise of the show would still hold.

On watching, was this still the case?

 

[brushfire]

The guy is a masterful documentarian. Now I want to see it. Tube?

J/K - it will probably re-air on one of the channels, at 1AM on Sunday.

 

[ZanZibar]

 

[1000-points-of-fright]

Ken Burns on Prohibition, Drug Laws, and Unintended Consequences

Ken Burns on PBS funding

 

[Southron]

Has anybody seen this yet?
Burns makes a good case for saying this was forced on the American people, not as some religious awakening, but as simple government control.
Thoughts?

I haven't seen it but it makes sense that it wasn't any Christian awakening as alcohol isn't prohibited in the Bible.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

saw some Seemed pretty good

 

[ConvertedRepublican]

I've got it recorded, but haven't watched it yet. What struck me about the "trailers" for it was you could easily change the word "Prohibition" to the words "The War of Drugs" and the premise of the show would still hold.

On watching, was this still the case?

The 'war on drugs' certainly pops to mind, but the other issue, and far more pressing in light of modern times, is that of government control and manipulation. I couldn't help but see the paralels between "uneducated and untrained prohibition agents" and the untrained TSA workers "keeping us safe" today. The privacy issue brought up for the first time with a new technology: wiretapping of telephones to catch bootleggers. Made me think of the online snooping our DHS does today.
The issue of constitutional rights stands full center in this documentary.
And its hard not to see how much we have not learned in 80 years.

 

[libertygrl]

Has anybody seen this yet?
Burns makes a good case for saying this was forced on the American people, not as some religious awakening, but as simple government control.
Thoughts?

I saw some of it, but I thought they said Prohibition was originally started by women who were fed up with their drunk husbands beating them all the time and not supporting their families. From that point on it became a moral issue and that's why more Americans jumped on board to support it.

 

[Dreamofunity]

Bootleggers and Baptists

 

[axiomata]

Just read and returned the book it was based on today. (Last Call by Daniel Okrent) Recommended.

 

[axiomata]

Here's Okrent's EconTalk interview: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/06/okrent_on_prohi.html

 

[lester1/2jr]

It was interesting that so many Americans supported it till they didn't.

 

[Matt Collins]

I just started watching it...

Prohibition in the US was pushed by racists, socialists, feminists, and progressives according to the first show in the Ken Burns' documentary on prohibition. These same people also pushed the 16th Amendment because alcohol taxes funded much of the federal revenues and prohibition couldn't pass until there was another source of funding for the government. GRRRRRR

 

[Matt Collins]

Second Wheeler was able to insure success of his Annti-Saloon League by holding the 10% margin in any vote. He could thus insure that any politician that did not go along would be voted out. Such is the way in a close two-party system.

That strategy still works today. See this:

http://www.nationalgunrights.org/our-strategy