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Article: Prohibition
- Article from:
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PROHIBITION
The popular name for the period in U.S. history from 1920 to 1933 when the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages
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except for medicinal or religious purposes
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were illegal.
From 1920 to 1933 the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors were illegal in the United States. The eighteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorized Congress to prohibit alcoholic beverages, but the twenty-first amendment repealed this prohibition. The era of Prohibition was marked by large-scale smuggling and illegal sales of liquor, the growth of organized crime, and increased restriction on personal freedom.
The prohibition movement began in the 1820s in the wake of a ...