Mountain Dew: Prohibition in America
The era of Prohibition has long captivated America’s imagination. Prohibition’s origins can be found in the Temperance movement of the early 1800’s. The Temperance Movement wanted to rid society of the evils of liquor and slavery. Ultimately the Temperance Movement could not gain enough support to ban liquor until nearly a century later in 1917, when Prohibition was passed to conserve wheat for the war effort in World War I. The era of Prohibition gave birth to mob bosses like Al Capone and is the genesis for the modern sport of NASCAR. In this lesson plan, students will explore the Prohibition era using a variety of learning methods and resources to answer the investigative question of how the era of Prohibition affected American society.
