End of Semester Reflection

Abbey Haynes
4/25/2021
Professor Aarti Nakra
Spring 2021

I’m here, at the finish line for the Spring 2021 semester at SLCC. This paper is
meant to specifically reflect on my final paper for the History 1700 class, which I chose
to write about Prohibition. I decided to choose that topic because, throughout the entire
semester, nothing really sparked my interest to dive into and learn more about as much
as Prohibition.
Prior to reading about it in our American Civilization textbook, what I knew about
Prohibition came from past classes in high school (which was a decade ago now!), as
well as a trip to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas - which I would highly recommend a visit
if you can! We thought we’d be in there for maybe an hour, turns out we were in there
learning about the mobsters for four hours! To be fair, I’m not going to claim that I
retained all the information given at the museum. However, it did spark my interest in
the topic and the organized crime that went along with Prohibition and the bootlegging
that occurred. The main concept I remember from that museum trip was that organized
crime didn’t just happen in New York City or Chicago, no, it was an intricate network
across the entire country which wasn’t covered in the textbook! Some main hubs were
indeed in NY and Illinois, but also multiple places covering California, Texas, Missouri,
Philadelphia, etc. It was fascinating to see it come full-circle from the start to the end of
Prohibition while at the museum.
Again, that being said, I didn’t retain too much from the visit besides that. I
learned quite a bit about Prohibition in my research. It surprised me that many people of
influence expected Prohibition to fix all their problems - it made me think of the
unobtainable “American Dream” for many. There were weaknesses in the system, and
the mobsters certainly saw it and exploited them. With the amount of profit of alcohol
sales no longer going to the government, and into the pockets of crime… well, crime did
pay, for some. I’ll be the first to admit, I would be trying to get into a speakeasy during
Prohibition. Sure, for the experience and the risk, but also, I simply enjoy my beer.
People were still dying of cirrhosis of the liver and alcohol poisoning. Wasn’t the
whole point of Prohibition for that to nearly stop? It’s estimated that 60-70% of people
were still consuming alcohol. After my research, I’ve come to the conclusion that
Prohibition was a bust. Instead of outlawing it, perhaps education should have been
implemented, instead of fear. Alcohol can lead to addiction, and addiction is a mental
disease. Maybe if it was viewed as such back then in the 1920s, we’d view alcohol
dependence differently overall nowadays, too.
 To be honest, I don’t know if I learned any new skills from this course, but only
because I’ve been through a history class or two in my time as a student already. Also,
I’ve written a multitude of papers there a bit more in-depth than this final paper for this
class. However, I did enjoy the challenge and will take my new knowledge of Prohibition
with me.