Prohibition on PBS....

[Brandi]

If you can catch it watch it! It was on last night and I am sure will repeat. Very historic and informative. The legal age to have sex was once 10 years old!!!!!!

[OakLeaf]

I think there are three episodes, we've got at least the first one in the TiVo but haven't watched it yet!

[Brandi]

It is very interesting and the film and photo footage is amazing! It is so cool to see all this old footage. And learning about how strong women felt about how awful alcohol was and and and. There is a lot of stuff I had no idea about. Plan to dvr the other one's for sure.

[ny biker]

I heard tonight's episode would discuss rumrunning on Long Island. So proud my homeland is famous for that.

[jessmarimba]

Just stumbled across it and I guess there is another one on next? Or maybe the beginning of this one. This is the kind of PBS programming I love! :D

[azfiddle]

I haven't been able to watch it straight through, but it is very fascinating. I didn't realize the extent of the corruption and political slime. I knew that alcoholic beverages were around for thousands of years, but didn't realize the impact that the invention of distilled spirits had. Other surprises to me were the huge amount of alcohol that was being consumed before Prohibition, and the number of loopholes in the original legislation.

[Catrin]

I am trying to remember my source..but I remember reading that it was a political decision in our country to make private/small breweries illegal when the Scot/Irish started emigrating to our country. Apparently, if the source was correct, a good number of them had brewing experience and could have started small breweries here. The reason appeared to to protect the existing breweries, one politician made the accusation that this was the best way to assure poverty among the new residents in the southeast US. It was a quite interesting read, and I wish I could remember the source as it has been some time.

My mother's family is of good Scot/Irish descent from Tennessee, and we had our fair share of moonshiners before and during Prohibition.

[Brandi]

Our family was of German decent and they said at one point not only did they not allow German text books in schools but they allowed stoning of dachshunds! How crazy is that! I am in awww of how out of control it was. The drinking part that is. I know that it is still a problem but why was it so bad back then? It is not like they can cut you off now. And times are hard for people now! Not as bad as back then, at least all children can go to school now, women have the same right's as men now (more or less) but the poverty is still bad. I know I see it first hand with all my travels. So why was it so bad? Is it more in the closet now? PBS rocks!

[Norse]

We started watching last night and have the rest Tivo'd. It is fascinating but Ken Burns has a great way of making history come to life and leave you riveted. We found ourselves going "huh" and "wow, really?" frequently last night learning all sorts of things we had no idea about. And I was almost a history major. :)

[FlyingScot]

They got most of their Anti-Saloon league photos and information from right here in my home town. We were positively giddy when Ken Burns came to town!!

[Brandi]

They got most of their Anti-Saloon league photos and information from right here in my home town. We were positively giddy when Ken Burns came to town!!
What town? How cool was that?

[Brandi]

We started watching last night and have the rest Tivo'd. It is fascinating but Ken Burns has a great way of making history come to life and leave you riveted. We found ourselves going "huh" and "wow, really?" frequently last night learning all sorts of things we had no idea about. And I was almost a history major. :)
Exactly! I thought i knew about it, not even close!

[Possegal]

I'll have to try and catch this. My mother's father put food on the table smuggling booze across the border to the states during Prohibition. When we were kids and asked Mum what he's profession was, she usually just said "rum runner". :)

[Dogmama]

+1 - and I don't watch a lot of TV. The mom of my dog says that in NC there are still people brewing their own in stills.

[FlyingScot]

What town? How cool was that?

Good old Westerville, Ohio which was the headquarters for the ASL. We even got a post office before we were even considered a village because of the amount of mail sent to and from. Unfortunately we were only mentioned once...ONCE in the entire program and even then all they said was that their propaganda was printed in Westerville. Bummer.

[OakLeaf]

Just watched the first episode. Not that I've studied the period at all, but between what little they taught us in elementary school, what I've read about the history of feminism, and of course representations in popular culture, this was by far the most positive portrayal of the temperance movement I've ever seen. Interesting ... and probably just another example of how history is written by the winners.

[Catrin]

Just watched the first episode. Not that I've studied the period at all, but between what little they taught us in elementary school, what I've read about the history of feminism, and of course representations in popular culture, this was by far the most positive portrayal of the temperance movement I've ever seen. Interesting ... and probably just another example of how history is written by the winners.

Yep, it is interesting and your comment about history being written by the winners is very well put. Regardless of how much a scholar or historian strives to be "impartial" and present things just as they happened, we are all a product of our times and culture and we have filters related to that. I think many of us don't realize how deep those filters go in our psyche.

All of that being said, Ken Burns always does a great job! I missed the chance to watch the first episode the other night, perhaps I can catch the next episodes.

A unrelated example of filters. I was really struck by this last winter when I had a chance to watch a Charlie Chan mystery on some late night show when I couldn't sleep and still had cable. As a child I loved those shows, I was under 10 years old and hadn't seen one since. Watching one of those as a 51 year old woman was quite a shock, I couldn't finish watching it - it was just full of racial and gender slurs. I certainly didn't remember any of THAT!