The Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act.

In the years before World War I, the temperance movement had succeeded in convincing the legislatures of twenty-six states to enact laws banning the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. The culmination of a long campaign directed initially against saloons and more recently against the production of alcoholic beverages, the movement's success was dramatically affected by the nation's mobilization for war. The need to conserve grain, the importance of maintaining some semblance of discipline and devotion to a patriotic cause, and the will to win all required a demonstration of the nation's sober determination to protect its interests. Toward the end of 1917, both houses of Congress had approved a resolution to amend the Constitution to prohibit the manufacture, transportation, or sale of alcoholic beverages. By January 1919 three quarters of the states had ratified this proposal,...