Prohibition

Throughout American history, heavy alcohol consumption has been a pervasive part of its national social character. However in the 1800s, a growing Temperance movement arose determined to oppose the destructive habit by any means necessary. This series tells the story of this crusade until it achieved its ultimate goal of passing the 18th Amendment of the US Constitution which imposed prohibition. After that victory, the series covers this social reform's disastrous unintended consequences that encouraged clandestine drinking and organized crime while undermining civil liberties and society's respect for the law in ways that still reverberate today.

Cast:

Kevin Conway, Samuel L. Jackson, Blythe Danner, Joanne Tucker, Carolyn McCormick, Adam Arkin, Peter Coyote, Campbell Scott, Amy Madigan, Oliver Platt, Sam Waterston, Philip Bosco, Frances Sternhagen, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Noah Feldman, Jeremy Irons, John Lithgow, Pete Hamill, Martin Marty, Tom Hanks, Jack Roche, John Paul Stevens, William Leuchtenburg, Daniel Okrent,

• Season 1
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  Episode 1: A Nation of Drunkards
• Play in Full Screen
  Episode 2: A Nation of Scofflaws
• Play in Full Screen
  Episode 3: A Nation of Hypocrites

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  Prohibition
  Guitar Gangsters

  Turn it up again, we've got our aerials downtown.
  On cheap car stereo's, we've got a radio downtown.
  Feel the city shaking for miles around.
  Kick the start and turn the dials around.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  We cross the tracks when the sun goes down.
  There's just the two of us in this town.
  We'll drive all night until the sun comes 'round.
  It's time to we shook the radio down.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  In the dead of night when there's not a sound.
  Just the distant rumble of the underground.
  You can hear for miles and miles around.
  You can start and turn the dials around, around...
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.
  Radio, radio, radio.
  Radio Shakedown.

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  Prohibition
  Zoetrope

  In an abandoned warehouse late at night in the shipping yards
  The gangsters keep a watchful eye for the man in blue
  As a loaded semi pulls up to an empty dock
  The rear door opens to reveal the demon alcohol
  CHORUS:
  Restriction drinking's against the law
  Prohibition the demon alcohol
  A heavy profit's to be turned on this mountain dew
  But if you're caught you might get killed or thrown in jail
  But what's the fuss it's soon to be legal anyway
  So you may as well go with the flow of things to come
  CHORUS
  What you see is what you get on a one shot deal
  So make it now and worry later about the end result
  When the loaded semi pulls up to the empty dock
  You'll get another week's supply of alcohol

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  Prohibition
  Irving Berlin

  [Father Time:]
  A day is born, July the first
  And with it comes a shock
  John Barleycorn who quenched your thirst
  Passed out at twelve o'clock
  The mourners come from far and near
  Their bitter tears to shed
  July the first, prohibition's here
  And alcohol is dead
  [Mourners:]
  Alcohol, alcohol
  Sorry to see you go
  Alcohol, alcohol
  Oh, how we'll miss you so
  Fare thee well, fare thee well
  Place us in a padded cell
  For the country's going to hell
  Now that she's going dry, dry, dry
  We hate to say goodbye
  [Bartenders:]
  What are we going to do now?
  What are we going to do?
  Gone are the beer saloons
  And we went with them too
  The future now looks very black
  Because the future points
  To red neck-ties and tennis shirts
  And sarsparilla joints
  Where are we going to work now?
  Maybe before we are through
  We'll have to join the soda water crew
  We'll have rouge upon our lips
  And our hands upon our hips
  Heaven help us when we do
  [Chorus Girls:]
  Gee, but it's gonna be tough for the chorus ladies from now on
  How are we going to wrestle a Rolls-Royce from a Jack or John?
  A little bit of Haig and Haig while we were having sup
  Would help to make the tightest Ebeneezer loosen up
  But now it's gonna be tougher
  Now we're going to suffer
  Now that the town is growing dry
  [The Working Man:]
  I want my beer, I want my beer
  And there are no two ways about it
  I want my beer, I want my beer
  I won't do any work without it
  The working man must have his can
  To do his work from year to year
  Oh, how I wish again
  That I was a fish again
  Swimming in an ocean of beer
  [Soldiers:]
  So, this is the land of the free
  That awoke when the U-boats were sinking
  And told us to go o'er the sea
  And protect her liberty
  Now I'm just as true as can be
  To my land, but I cannot help from thinking
  That I should have stayed in Paree
  Where no one dares to interfere with what you're drinking