The Most Important Cultural Battle Of The 1920's

The most important cultural battle fought in the 1920’s would have been the battle over the Prohibition. The Prohibition was the constitutional ban on the production, consumption, and sale of alcohol. This ban was put into place in 1920 and lasted for 13 years. At the core of this battle was whether to keep it around or to do away with it all together. There were several different groups on either side of this opposition each of which had their own agenda and reason for believing the way they did.
Those who agreed and argued to keep this ban were mainly Protestants and women groups, like the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement. Each of these groups had their own agenda on why they wanted to maintain this ban, so its going to be beneficial to look at them individually. Protestants wanted to keep this ban in place because they often
This included a great deal of the male population, criminal leaders like Al Capone (who ran an underground liquor trade industry), those who believed it hurt the economy, and many people who just believed that this ban was just pointless. The economic argument, and the argument that this ban wasn’t being upheld were the most popular arguments for repealing this ban. Many believed, that because of the several different industries that go into the liquor business, that Prohibition was hurting the economy. They argued that industries such as the lumber (for barrels), glass (for bottles), and agriculture (for wheat) all were hurt because of the ban on alcohol. The second argument, which many believed to be true, was that this ban wasn’t being upheld, and it essentially was a pointless law. This argument came about because people knew that the underground market was active, and the fact that people did not stop drinking once the ban was set into place. Bootleggers and speakeasys were common place during this era of American