Prohibition regression and progression

The Prohibition was a period marked by the ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of liquor in the United States that remained in place from 1919 to 1933.

Prohibition marked the Progressive Era. It was a period of social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to 1920s.The main objective of the Progressive movement was to eliminate corruption in government and to re-instaure order in the society.

But the prohibition has been reviewed in 1933 according to the wishes of a major part of the population, so we can wonder in what extent can we say that prohibition is a regression and a progression?

On one hand, we can say that prohibition is a progress for America. Indeed, Alcohol is harmful for people. During the prohibition, people often had no access to alcohol,and so, they could improve their health. The number of patients with liver damage dropped during the period that the prohibition was in force.

Moreover, thanks to the prohibition the domestic violence decreased, because a lot of domestic violents were caused by the drunkenness of husbands. So we can say that women were more in security during this period and that’s why prohibition is a progress. Of course, alcohol is not the principal factor of all acts of domestic violence and criminal acts but it does play an important role. Furthermore, the public drunkenness decreased thanks to the prohibition. Indeed, people were scared to be arrested and go to jail because they drank alcohol, so they stopped to drink outside. That’s why we can say that thanks to the Prohibition, people felt more in security outside and they went out more often. We also can say that, alcoholics couldn't be able to spend all their money on drinks anymore and as a result, their families had more money to live. So we can conclude that prohibition improved the social situation in America. Women were more in security and families had more money to live. That’s why in the late 1920’s, feminists supported the Klux klux Klan and the movements for the prohibition. Indeed, they thought that alcohol was the reason of the crimes against women. Prohibition provoked a feeling of safeness to women and that’s why we can say that is a huge progress for women because they were not scared anymore and they could get out safely and freely.

On the other Hand, we can say that prohibition is a regression for America. When the Volstead Act was voted, people thought that it was the end of alcohol consommation and so the end of violence, crimes and corruption. But this act marked the beginning of bootlegging, speakeasies and the rise of Al Capone and Charlie Luciano. Indeed, black market became more and more powerful and quickly the police and the public became corrupted. Even though alcohol was not allow,the number of speakeasies increased, and were more than before the prohibition. As fast as the police closed down one venue, more would appear. In the middle of the 1920’s, there were 100 000 speakeasies in New York. So we can say that corruption were still there after the prohibition and more powerful than before. Consequently, we can say that prohibition is not a progress in America but more a regression because it has disaster consequence : the country lost a lot of money because of the black market, and the corruption increased.

Moreover, the social situation was also a disaster

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