Spirits Sugar Water Bitters

• By Derek Brown and Robert Yule
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• This item is not eligible for discounts unless explicitly mentioned in promotional offers

• Product Description

• This fascinating read tells the story of the quintessential American invention: the cocktail, detailing its birth, rise, fall and resurrection at the same time as tracing the timeline of America's story.

In 1919, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, commonly referred to as the Volstead Act, which outlawed the production, distribution, and transportation of alcohol. Prohibition officially went into effect on January 16, 1920. Originally envisioned as an age of moral reform for the country, the next decade saw an increase in organized crime, homicides, burglaries, and assaults as gangs supplied speakeasies with smuggled alcohol and law enforcement became overwhelmed.

With public opinion against it, Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaigned on repealing Prohibition, which ended in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment.