Age Of Prohibition

Looking at the title of this book one can designate what the book will be about; age of prohibition. During the age of prohibition, the 18th amendment brought up many issues within different cultures, however between the Jews this conflict was a bit more complicated. The author of this book, Marni Davis who is a history professor at the Georgia state University, focuses on the complicated relationship Jews had with alcohol with the Jewish bootleggers during Prohibition in the 1920s. Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition is primarily is about the debate the Jewish community had over the 18th amendment; focusing on the orthodox rabbis who were the bootleggers and their achievement in trade was “entirely atypical” (page 150).
The first part of the book starts with going back in history to 1870’s to describe the Jews entry into the alcohol industry then shifting the story to the early reaction of Jews toward the prohibition movement in the 19th century. With giving this background historical information the author gives in the book, it can help the reader understand why the alcohol industry would be even important to the Jewish community. Davis does an excellent job in showing the history from the beginning that why alcohol industry is so important in the Jewish community from the civil war till the prohibition movement. This background information will also educate the reader that might now know anything about the history of this issue and help them analyze and understand this issue in more deep detail. The second part of the book focuses on the relationship between anti-Semitism and the alcohol industry and the eastern Europeans that were migrating to America during this time period. Focusing on the anti-Semitism is the main focus of this section. The author tries to show that the target of anti- sematic propaganda is the Jewish involvement in the alcohol industry. Davis cleverly points out hateful Jewish stereotypes like Henry Ford. The author as evidence to backup her points also mentions what they had to say about Jewish people. For example, she mentions what
I had no idea how big of an impact the prohibition movement had on the Jewish community. After reading this book I have learned that 18th amendment really impacted the Jewish community into transiting from a Jew to an American Jewish in the United States. It is really important to realize that these Jews went through many troubles not to give up on their culture. The purpose of this fight was to not let other culture impact their Jewish culture, instead they wanted to keep their culture but also have some mix of American culture in order to adapt to living in this country. We do not always see all the side of the prohibition movement in our history; we always hear the story from one point of view with all of this details missing. However, in the book of Jews and Booz, Davis really does a good job in explaining the prohibition movement because she shows both the bright and the dark side of this movement in the book. The author states much historical information throughout the book as evidence to support her points. She mentions this historical background with intelligence and humor, which will keep the reader interested. Every time she mentioned something she had evidence to back up her points, this really makes the book reliable to the reader. What makes her book so interesting is because she combines ethnic, social, racial and business history