Drink and be Damned - Phil Biggerton

Drink and be Damned celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the start of Prohibition on January 17, 1920 by looking at an era that has often been captured in grainy black and white pictures of people like Al Capone and barrels of whisky being smashed by Prohibition agents.

Over the years, this era has become romanticized as a special time in  American history and the flavor of the time has been brought back to life in movies like ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Untouchables’ and by reopening, or recreating, some of the speakeasies used at the time in cities like New York and Chicago.

Dozens and dozens of books have been written about Prohibition but this book aims to take a wider look at not only some of the people and the places associated with Prohibition but how some of the events that happened in and around the time created a momentum of change that can still be felt today for not only the individual but also society as a whole both in America and around the world.

If you are starting this book with the innocent eyes of a Prohibition virgin – learning about this amazing era for the first time – you might think that the thought of life without alcohol was going to be a life without light at the end of the tunnel but nothing could have been further from the truth.

The 1920s was, in fact, a magical moment in the history of America for people who lived through it. These people might have been ‘innocent’ bystanders enjoying a drink of whisky in a speakeasy while they listened to Jazz or they might have been at the forefront of change and became icons of the time.  

Whoever they were, and whatever part they played, they all added an energy and excitement to a time that was also known as the Roaring Twenties or the Lawless Decade.

This was a time of great social change and innovation, a theme that will be explored here, where the spirit of America and its people changed forever and the world took notice and changed with them.