INTERACTIVE MAP: Discover Facts About the Prohibition Era, Presented By PBS

The culmination of nearly a century of activism, Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality.

Thugs became celebrities, responsible authority was rendered impotent. Social mores in place for a century were obliterated. Especially among the young, liquor consumption rocketed. Skirts shortened. Music heated up. With Prohibition in place, but ineffectively enforced, one observer noted, America had hardly freed itself from the scourge of alcohol abuse – instead, the “drys” had their law, while the “wets” had their liquor. The story of Prohibition’s rise and fall is a compelling saga that goes far beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum runners, flappers, and speakeasies, to reveal a complicated and divided nation in the throes of momentous transformation.

This interactive map, populated with facts about this contentious time in U.S. history, was produced by the team behind PBS' upcoming documentary film series "Prohibition" directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The series will raise vital questions that are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago – about means and ends, individual rights and responsibilities, the proper role of government.

In the map below, click on the martini glasses for "wet" facts; upside-down bottles are "dry" facts. Similarly, the handcuffs pertain to "lawless" facts, while the gavels represent facts about the "law" during the era. Zoom in and move the map, particularly in areas like the Northeast, where pinpoints are most densely populated. Have fun—and tune in to PBS' "Prohibition" premiere on Oct. 2, 3, and 4 on PBS at 8 EST.

Comments

[TheAlchemist]

03:24 PM on 10/01/2011

I'm still so amazed that physicians can prescribe opiates but science can't even study the use of marajuana in anorexia, pain, multiple sclerosis...

[wanglog]

07:58 AM on 10/02/2011

yeah, opiates feel so much better than grass though...like god himself is giving you well-needed massage! i get your point though.

[WhatsLeft]

12:59 PM on 10/01/2011

Having seen the affect of alcoholism in my life and that of various friends it is easy to understand why it was banned. Domestic violence, child abuse, poverty can in many instances be linked to alcohol. But you cannot legislate human addictions. It's just easier than trying to fix it after the fact.

[BoudiccaBlanc]

02:15 PM on 09/30/2011

PROHIBITION = PROOF THAT MAKING A "VICE" ILLEGAL IS STUPID.

(Better to de-criminalize, the drugs, booze, prostitution and tax the devil out of it!)

[CannabisRex]

12:42 PM on 09/30/2011

It sickens the sound mind to realize that America is so stupified on lies and nonsense that they ignore all the facts and do not rise up and demand an end to this outrage called prohibition.

No one can defend it intellectually, historically, or rationally, yet the carnage continues. Cops are elevated to hero status for using terrible laws to run roughshod over the rights of us all, with the blessing of the politicians..all of whom are cowards..with some very few exceptions. The voters, kost of whom are uneducated about the issues, keep this harmful policy going by ignoring the issue...just because " they " do not use anything but liquor and prescribed meds they have no sympathy for people locked in cages for personal use of natural substances.

Someday the people will look back and wonder how in the hell we allowed this to continue for so long and at such a cost when the solution is obvious: Decriminalize and regulate ALL drugs in an effective and humane manner...forbidding people from something they desire is doomed to failure...but the money is being made by the cops and courts and private prisons..and it keeps the scummy politicians from having to stand for reason and sound policy..disgusting to think that in this day and age we lock people in cages for using plant material..it cannot be justified by any rational means.

[Ophie511]

02:24 PM on 09/30/2011

Just because people want something, then it needs to be made legal? Not all drugs should be criminalized, but not all drugs should be legal, either. You're just as guilty as the rest if you see the issue in such black and white tones. But that is neither here nor there... the part that really caught me is "forbidding people from something they desire is doomed to failure..." People desire to do all sorts of things, friend. Kill, ste@l, r@pe. Laws really do have a purpose for the protection of society.

[CannabisRex]

04:48 PM on 09/30/2011

lLet me make it simple: Rape and murder and theft impact OTHERS directly and negatively. Personal use of substances involves NO ONE ELSE and causes no harm to anyone else. Get the difference?

locking people up for drug use does NOT discourage such use...it is available even in prison!! The state and Feds have to stage elaborate and expensive sting operations to catch drug users, as there are NO VICTIMS to report some crime against them. please show ONE valid proof that any drug law has been effective...oh, you can't? Thats because no matter what the drug is, no matter how benign or addictive, using force of law and threats of punishment simply DO NOT WORK and NEVER have in all of human history.

If you make anything illegal that is widely desired and that does not cause direct harm to another you are wasting time and money, because the market ALWAYS finds a way to reach the money. You also should note that the examples you used are NOT market driven events, they are crimes against persons, and so totally different in every respect. the ONLY link between crime and drugs is PROHIBITION; remove the crime and all that is left is a market to be regulated and made as safe as possible.

As soon as you take the regulation away, you give it to the " criminals " to set the rules, taking it away from any responsible path. Understand?

[TommyMcCarthy]

06:50 PM on 09/30/2011

Rex.....

I have terrible news for you....
...
The EXACTLTY analogous arguments comparing the prohibition of alcohol drugs....were well known....but took about 25 years to "sink in" throughout the country.

Given the impossibility of getting ANY politician to be the first to "jump"....and pay the price for being "soft on drugs"........the draconian LAWS remained on the books in most jurisdictions.......
As a boy...a LIFE sentence in Texas could accrue for so much as a SEED in......the same in liberal, tolerant NEW YORK for "harder" drugs.

By the 90's ENFORCEMENT had begun to reflect contemporary thinking (provided one was not African-American....a subject for another post)

Then it was discovered how incredibly PROFITABLE locking people up was. Not only could paid-for legislators bring home millions in "pork"....based on the "crime wave" (crime was actually going down)....but all sorts of neat TOYS (helicopters, assault vehicles, unlimited funding for EVERYTHING enforcement related...etc.

We've seen the same syndrome in the post 9/11 "anti-terrorism" boom....

That bad news I mentioned?........
We know it takes a couple of decades for laws to "catch up" with common sense.
But when there's a PROFIT motive?
Never.... Not EVER...

Drug laws are as liberal in the US now as they will EVER be

When enough people's livelihood depends upon combating an invasion of "spiders from Mars".....you can count on PLENTY of spider sightings for the forseeable future
tm

[GranE]

10:58 AM on 10/02/2011

Maybe you could try sitting on jury duty in an area where meth is prevalent. One case involved a young couple who where high but ran out of gas going where?, they don't remember. They got out of the car and walked, leaving a two year old girl and a three year old boy with just a diaper on sitting in the car. The boy was spotted by a driver, walking down the road in his diaper in 48 degree weather. The sheriff's deputy whose job it was to bring in these children was very emotional about their condition when he got to them. The little girl had pooped her diaper and it dried on her causing hospital workers to bathe her in warm oil before they could remove it. The children will stick in his memory and the jury's memory, and I'm quite sure the pictures were not pictures of spiders.

[Josephus]

10:47 AM on 09/30/2011

The problem with this documentary is that Prohibition didn't end. It just morphed into something else. The documentary is based on a false premise. If we had learned the lesson from alcohol prohibition the war on some drugs would have never happened.

[gx5000]

10:29 AM on 09/30/2011

No mention of the K's running alcohol from Canada to the states in the east whatsoever, very BIG part of the story that lead to the beginnings of some big Liquor companies here....

[AlfredE69]

07:37 PM on 09/28/2011

End the prohibition of drugs.

[Cheer83]

09:16 AM on 09/28/2011

Love Ken Burns! Can't wait!

[jsgaetano]

12:26 AM on 09/28/2011

I've been watching Boardwalk Empire. It's fictionalized, but really excellent.

[caitlincole]

03:47 PM on 09/27/2011

Can't wait for Prohibition!

[minty68]

02:23 PM on 09/27/2011

Can't wait to see this!

[fredvh]

11:48 AM on 09/27/2011

One thing missing from this map is Templeton Rye.
It kept many farmers on their farms.
There are photos around Templeton, Ia with questionable people supposedly from Chicago being in town.
It's currently a 7ish hour drive, and think how long that was back then....shipping from Western Iowa to Chicago.

[Robert Frank]

09:09 AM on 09/27/2011

prohibition was an idiotic experiment that failed just as the idiotic "war on drugs" has and will continue to fail...too bad certain people who support it are to damn stupid to see this...or they have a financial incentive to keep it going, I personally believe its more towards the money with the average idiot leaning towards the official version of events that we can win this war

[shonuff1914]

09:05 AM on 09/27/2011

So no one can see the parallels between prohibition and the war on drugs?

[AlfredE69]

07:37 PM on 09/28/2011

Obama could not answer the question why marijuana is illegal, and he went to law school.

[j r h r j]

08:49 AM on 09/27/2011

http://www.mafiamaps.com