h/t Instapundit
If they think about Prohibition at all, most Americans probably accept Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter's conclusion that it was a farce, a "ludicrous caricature of the reforming impulse," an ineffective albeit financially costly moral crusade imposed on a reluctant populace.
Decades later, Harvard University historian Lisa McGirr is here to tell us that not only is this widespread view misguided, it has led us to believe wrongly that the threat and consequences of Prohibition were trivial and short-lived. |