Prohibition: Ken Burns Documentary on PBS this Fall

Knowledge is Power. Resisting ignorance is never futile.

Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.

From the PBS site:

Prohibition turned law-abiding citizens into criminals, made a mockery of the justice system, caused illicit drinking to seem glamorous and fun, encouraged neighborhood gangs to become national crime syndicates, permitted government officials to bend and sometimes even break the law, and fostered cynicism and hypocrisy that corroded the social contract all across the country.

Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.

From this clip:

"How the hell did that happen? How does a freedom loving people, a nation that's built on individual rights and liberties decide -- in one kind of, crazed moment it almost seems --  that we can tell people how to live their lives?" Daniel Okrent, author, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.

“This is a story about a single-issue campaign that metastasized.” – Ken Burns

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning New York Times columnist Timothy Egan adds:

The obvious echo will be about drugs. You will hear “if only” in many variants this fall — as in, if only the most popular of illicit substances were brought out of criminal shadows to be legalized and taxed.

But the film and book are much more instructive on the political fevers of the early 21st century, particularly those aroused by monomaniacal anti-tax pressure groups and their foot soldiers, the increasingly unpopular Tea Party.

Lynn Novick: "Prohibition didn't happen overnight."

Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.

Ken Burns on the Prohibition Idea:

Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.