Prohibition

🧠 Memory Aid: Prohibition

The "NOBLE experiment — NASTY results" framework:

• N — Noble intention (reduce poverty, crime, immorality)
• O — Organised crime created (Capone, $60m/year, gang wars)
• B — Bootlegging industry ($2 billion illegal economy)
• L — Law-breaking became normal (30,000 speakeasies in NYC)
• E — Enforcement impossible (only 1,500 agents; 1 in 12 corrupt)

Key statistics to know cold:

• 30,000 — speakeasies in New York City alone
• $60 million — Al Capone's annual income from bootlegging
• 1,500 — Prohibition agents for the entire country (hopelessly inadequate)
• 1 in 12 — agents fired for corruption
• 227 — gangland murders in Chicago 1927-30 (0 convictions)
• 1933 — 21st Amendment repeals Prohibition — the only amendment ever undone

The "only Amendment ever repealed" fact: This is your single strongest piece of evidence that Prohibition failed. The US Constitution has been amended 27 times. Only ONCE has an amendment been undone — the 18th Amendment. America officially admitted it had made a mistake. Always use this in your conclusion.

The Capone quote: "Prohibition is a business. All I do is supply a public demand." — This quote is perfect for exam answers because it comes directly from the man who most benefited from Prohibition. It shows that Capone understood exactly why Prohibition failed: it created a business opportunity by banning something people still wanted.