How far do these two accounts agree about Prohibition?.
When studying sources A and B I"m looking at how far they agree and disagree with each other about Prohibition.
Both sources are secondary evidence and are both extracts from books on American history, published only a few years apart.
In source A, the causes of Prohibition are talked about a lot and there are a lot of various reasons given for it. Such as the bad influences of saloons, the wartime concern for preserving grain for food, feelings against the German-Americans who were important in brewing and distilling, and the influence of the Anti Saloon League at a time when large numbers of men were absent in the armed forces. Source A also states that the most important cause of all for Prohibition was the moral fervor inspired by the "War to Make the World Safe for Democracy".
Also, source A mentions one general result of Prohibition and that was "it created the greatest criminal boom in American history, and perhaps in all modern history. We are told that no earlier law had gone against the daily customs, habits and desires of so many Americans and that therefore there had been no earlier law that produced such a widespread crime.
Now studying source B, I can see that it only concentrates on one cause for Prohibition, whereas source A looked at several. Source B talks about organisations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union joining in a crusade against alcoholism. It tells us that in 1917, three years before alcohol was banned throughout the whole of America, a nationwide campaign, led by the Anti-Saloon League, brought pressure to bear on Congress to ban the use of grain for either distilling or brewing. This victory then encouraged the supporters of the league to push for an amendment to the constitution of the USA, and in 1919 the amendment was passed and the manufacture, sale and transportation of liquor was banned.
