After these rainless months, one might think that this book is about the drought. In a way, it is. But it's a drought of alcohol, not water, in the U.S., especially New York City.

Michael Lerner states that the Prohibition experiment in New York deserves particular consideration because not only was it the nation's "cultural capital, financial center, media headquarters, and largest city," but also it was notorious in the 1920s for its defianceof the dry laws and its more than 30,000 speakeasies and nightclubs.

The anti-Saloon League said that by 1913, New Yorkers were spending $365 million a year on alcohol, more than double what the U.S. spent annually on the salaries of public school teachers. The Women's Christian Temperance Union had been the leader in the movement against alcohol, but was superceded by the League, which sent the skillful William Anderson to New York to fight "dry politics." His tactics were successful, though brutal and often unethical.

Urban reformers were working to improve order, sanitation, health care, and housing. The dry movement fitinto their efforts. It also fitwith a desire to "purify politics" by eliminating the corrupt influence of the saloon on city politicians. Unfortunately, some members of the League were also motivated by a "distrust of Catholics, Jews, and the ethnic groups that populated cities like New York."

When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, the drys were able to use it to their advantage, saying the alcohol problem was an issue of national security. Surprising to us now, even the theater industry supported Prohibition at first. Many factors resulted in the acceptance of Prohibition for a time. However, "Having pushed their reforms into the Constitution through pressure politics rather than democratic debate, they had set the stage for a spectacular wave of resistance to Prohibition."

Lerner reports that people were surprised when the liquor laws banned wine and beer as well as hard liquor. They began to resist and to dodge around the regulations. Prohibition agents were appointed by local politicians, and it was not long before they began to "play ball" with those who wanted alcoholic drinks again.

Bootleggers prospered, and illegal stills appeared in homes, as people realized that the liquor business could be a source of employment in many ways. Reformers then insisted that the police should enforce the laws, which they had not had to do at first. Again, the money became a corrupting influence, and things went from "bad to worse."

Dry Manhattan tells the story of the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and its eventual repeal in the Twentyfirst Amendment. It is a fascinating, timely story. Dry Manhattan is available at the Mary Willis Library.