The author surveys the origins and implementation of national alcohol prohibition, tracing its legal architecture and the Volstead Act and related statutes, and assessing their social and political consequences. He argues that sweeping bans produced an expanding web of laws, enforcement difficulties, bootlegging, corruption, and unintended social unhappiness, while altering public habits, literature, and civic life. Comparative chapters examine Canadian and European approaches, and contemporary debates among reformers, clergy, and journalists. The book combines reportage, legal critique, statistical canvass, and cultural commentary to weigh prohibition's practical effects and to pose questions about possible remedies or repeal.