Lerner, Michael A.

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Lerner, Michael A.

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Bard High School Early College, 525 E. Huston St., New York, NY 10002.

CAREER:

Bard High School Early College, New York, NY, associate dean of studies, member of social studies faculty.

WRITINGS:

Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael A. Lerner is the author of a history pinpointing the effects of prohibition on one region. In Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City, he writes of the motives behind the passing of the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution, which took away the American freedom to drink alcohol. The people responsible had varying motives. Some wanted alcohol deemed illegal for religious reasons. Others were social reformers or businessmen who felt production would increase if their workers could not drink. A key figure was lobbyist William Anderson, who rallied upstate New York Republicans to become a greater block for prohibition than the numbers of city residents, many of whom were immigrants or children of immigrants, and most of whom were Democrats. Alcohol figured prominently in the cultures of the Irish, Italians, Jews, and Germans who enjoyed it, and for whom it was part of their celebrations. One argument for prohibition was that it would lessen the temptation for the young soldiers fighting in World War I.

Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933, and before it ended fine New York restaurants went out of business while speakeasies flourished. Prohibition agents, who were not official members of law enforcement but were chosen by those who supported the ban, were eventually joined by policemen because of pressure from the "dry" faction, although reluctantly, since they were then put in a position of arresting their friends and family. The working-class immigrants were targeted with greater frequency than upper-class lawbreakers, and the courts soon become clogged with cases brought for simple alcohol possession. Prohibition also provided a breeding ground for corruption, graft, and fostered a great many mob activities.

Lerner points out that although Prohibition was supported by, and was a goal of, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, not all women rallied around the cause. The largest group formed for the repeal of the law was the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform.

Library Journal contributor Frederick J. Augustyn wrote that Lerner's "engagingly written, fully annotated study will appeal to all social historians of the 20th century and popular culture enthusiasts."