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Ken Burns Prohibition


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Didn't see any old threads on this 3-parter by Ken Burns, but it was recently re-shown on PBS. It's from 2011. It shows the folly and failure of the 18th amendment, how it spawned sophisticated organized crime syndicates (big focus on Al Capone), turned the majority of US citizens into criminals overnight, and resulted in high rates of alcohol abuse (as well as fatalities & injuries caused directly by the government denaturing alcohol with methanol and other poisons.)

 

Well done, fascinating series (what else do you expect from Burns?). You simply cannot watch this without constantly being reminding of how similar alcohol prohibition was to the war on drugs.

 

Here's the PBS site that lets you watch it on-line for free (conveniently broken up into short segments.)

Edited by zachw
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Didn't see any old threads on this 3-parter by Ken Burns, but it was recently re-shown on PBS. It's from 2011. It shows the folly and failure of the 18th amendment, how it spawned sophisticated organized crime syndicates (big focus on Al Capone), turned the majority of US citizens into criminals overnight, and resulted in high rates of alcohol abuse (as well as fatalities & injuries caused directly by the government denaturing alcohol with methanol and other poisons.)

 

Well done, fascinating series (what else do you expect from Burns?). You simply cannot watch this without constantly being reminding of how similar alcohol prohibition was to the war on drugs.

 

Here's the PBS site that lets you watch it on-line for free (conveniently broken up into short segments.)

 

Nice find, thank you.

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