The 18th Amendment of the United States Constitution mandated the prohibition of the sale and import of "intoxicating liquors" in the United States. This nationwide ban lasted from 1920 to 1933. The 21st Amendment, ratified in December 1933, repealed the 18th Amendment and ended Prohibition.

The Library of Congress has an excellent Guide to Historic Sources on the Alcoholic Beverage Industry, which includes sources that examine the history of the temperance movement and prohibition in the United States. The bibliography on the Temperance Movement and Prohibition contains a list of books, articles, and other materials found in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Use these titles to search in the OSU Libraries catalog or on Hathi Trust, Google Books, and the Internet Archive. 

• People and Groups For Prohibition
• People and Groups Against Prohibition. 

In addition to have great historical information, the Prohibition Wikipedia page has a robust set of related readings and references. The "See also" will route you to other pages that might help you with related topics. 

The Westerville History Center & Museum has a collection of Prohibition and Temperance materials. 

• Inventory of the Temperance and Prohibition Papers, 1830-1933
• Contact them with questions about access. 

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in Ohio in 1874, and Frances Willard was elected WCTU’s president in 1879.

• Learn about Willard and the collections housed at the Frances Willard House Museum and Archives. 
• Read about Frances Willard on Wikipedia. 
• Read about the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union on Wikipedia. 

"Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition" website at Brown University Library 

• "The digitized items in the Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition Collection are from the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, as well as from various collections in the Brown University Library — broadsides, sheet music, pamphlets and government publications."
• "The digitized pamphlets were published by various groups leading up to prohibition, during the prohibition era, and ending with the 21st amendment in 1933, which repealed the 18th amendment from 1919 prohibiting the manufacturing, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors."

"Temperance & Prohibition" website at Ohio State University. 

• There are photographs, cartoons, and posters, as well as data about alcohol consumption.
• This site was first created in 1996 by Professor Austin Kerr and is updated by the Department of History.

Recommended publications

• Beienburg, Sean. Prohibition, the Constitution, and states' rights, 2020. 
• Burton, William L. "Murder, Booze, and Sex: Three Perspectives on the Roaring Twenties." The Midwest Quarterly (Pittsburg) 31, no. 3 (1990): 374.
• Dannenbaum, Jed. "The Origins of Temperance Activism and Militancy among American Women." Journal of Social History 15, no. 2 (1981): 235-52. 
• Engdahl, Sylvia. Prohibition. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. 
• Goff, Brian and Gary Anderson. "The Political Economy of Prohibition in the United States, 1919-1933." Social Science Quarterly 75, no. 2 (1994): 270-83.
• Hernández, Carlos Eduardo. "Adaptation and survival in the brewing industry during prohibition." Unpublished, UCLA (2016).
• Hernandez Castillo, Carlos Eduardo. "Technology Adoption and Product Diversification in the Brewing Industry over the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." PhD diss., UCLA, 2016.
• Kassens, Alice Louise. Intemperate spirits: economic adaptation during prohibition, 2019. 
• Kyvig, David E. "Women Against Prohibition." American Quarterly 28, no. 4 (1976): 465-82. 
• Lewis, Michael, and Richard F. Hamm. Prohibition's greatest myths: the distilled truth about America's anti-alcohol crusade, 2020.
• McGirr, Lisa. The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016.
• Murphy, Mary. "Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte, Montana." American Quarterly 46, no. 2 (1994): 174-94.  
• Neumann, Caryn E. "The End of Gender Solidarity: The History of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform in the United States, 1929-1933." Journal of Women's History 9, no. 2 (1997): 31-51.
• Roiblatt, Rachel E. and Maria C. Dinis. "The Lost Link: Social Work in Early Twentieth‐Century Alcohol Policy." The Social Service Review (Chicago) 78, no. 4 (2004): 652-74.
• Rose, Kenneth D. American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
• Sanders, Paul D. Lyrics and Borrowed Tunes of the American Temperance Movement. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006.
• Sanchez, Tanya Marie. "The Feminine Side of Bootlegging." Louisiana History (2000): 403-433.
• Sasso, Peter. Prohibition, the Great War, and Political Advocacy: The Wartime Campaign for Prohibition. MA Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2010.

Recommended videos

• Burns, Ken, Novick, Lynn, and Kanopy. Prohibition. San Francisco, California, USA]: Kanopy Streaming, 2015.
  • Stream Episode 1
  • Stream Episode 2

Things to know

• America wasn't the only country with alcohol prohibition. 
  • Wikipedia article on alcohol prohibition 
  • List of countries with alcohol prohibition

Prohibition features prominently into the story of beer in Oregon, but also into the story of statehood. Conversations about banning alcohol actually pre-date statehood, but when the Oregon's Woman's Christian Temperance Union held its first meeting in 1883 at a Methodist church a few blocks from Weinhard's brewery, the so-called "Bonnet Brigade" became an unstoppable political force. 

Read more about the story of Prohibition in Oregon on the Brewstorian blog.

Recommended websites

• Prohibition in Oregon, Oregon State Archives  
• Alcoholic beverages in Oregon
• History of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission
• Prohibition Era in Salem
• Search Results « Historic Oregon Newspapers

Recommended publications

• Additon, Lucia H. Faxon. Twenty Eventful Years of Oregon Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1880-1900. Statistical, Historical and Biographical. Portraits of Prominent Pioneer Workers. Portland, Or.: Gotshall Printing Company, 1904. 
• Bootlegger’s paradise: Oregon’s Prohibition adventures 
• Caswell, John E. "The Prohibition Movement in Oregon: Part 1, 1836-1904." Oregon Historical Quarterly 39, no. 3 (1938): 235-61. 
• Caswell, John E. "The Prohibition Movement in Oregon II. 1904-1915." Oregon Historical Quarterly 40, no. 1 (1939): 64-82. 
• Crawford, Helen. Oregon Woman's Christian Temperance Union: Ninety Years. Portland, Or.: Union, 1973. 
• Dundas, Zach. The Scandalous History of Booze in Portland. Portland Monthly. 11/23/2015
• Jansson, Kyle R. "The Changing Climate of Oregon's Driest Town: Monmouth's Prohibition Ordinances, 1859-2001." Oregon Historical Quarterly 102, no. 3 (2001): 336-51. 
• Pennock, Pamela, and K Austin Kerr. 2005. "In the Shadow of Prohibition: Domestic American Alcohol Policy since 1933". Business History. 47 (3): 383-400.
• Platt, Amy E. “The Moon Shines on the Moonshine”: An Oregon Bootlegging Story. April 14, 2020. 
• Reed, Doug., and Oregon. Criminal Justice Division. Organized Crime Unit. The Violation of Prohibition Laws in the Pacific Northwest: A Study in Organized Crime, Enforcement, and Political Corruption. Salem, Or.: Organized Crime Unit, 1978. 
• Smith, Lyndsay Danielle, "A Temperate and Wholesome Beverage: the Defense of the American Beer Industry, 1880-1920" (2018). Dissertations and Theses.