THE GREAT ILLUSION

A brisk, bright history of anti-liquor agitation in America, this is a full account of that misguided, militant movement from the earliest attempts to curb intemperance through the failure of the great illusion- prohibition. Here are the founders and foundations of the American Temperance Society, W.C.T.U., and other organizations; the state by state adoption of dry laws; the enlistment of women in the crusade and Carry Nation's ""hatchetation""; the political interference and legislation; and finally the Volstead Act and constitutional prohibition which was to introduce an ""era of clear thinking and clean living"" but ricocheted sadly as women bellied up to a bar, men distilled at home, crime and corruption spurted as did the consumption of ardent spirits, and an appalling moral collapse ensued... If of special interest, this casts a tolerant, amused eye on that intolerant attempt to break the thralldom of the rum pot, has a vitalizing touch.