Prohibition (miniseries)

Prohibition is a 2011 American television documentary miniseries directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick with narration by Peter Coyote. The series originally aired on PBS between October 2, 2011 and October 4, 2011. It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It draws heavily from the 2010 book Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

WWW pbs.org/kenburns/prohibit...

Synopsis

Prohibition describes how the consumption and effect of alcoholic beverages in the United States were connected to many different cultural forces including immigration, women's suffrage, and the income tax. Eventually the Temperance movement led to the passing of Prohibition, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Widespread defiance of the law, uneven and unpopular enforcement, and violent crime associated with the illegal trade in alcohol caused increasing dissatisfaction with the amendment, eventually leading to its repeal 13 years later.

Cast

Voice actors

Interviewed consultants

Critical response

The documentary received mostly positive reviews. Neil Genzlinger of New York Times wrote that "You can hear history talking directly to the Americans of 2011 all through 'Prohibition,' an absorbing five-and-a-half-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick... Especially now, the story of America's disastrous experiment with banning alcoholic beverages seems made for Santayana's phrase about learning from the past or being condemned to repeat it." Hank Stuever of Washington Post wrote that "Burns has the similar gift of that rare history professor who can captivate even the most reluctant student by bringing the material to life." Troy Patterson of Slate wrote that "Prohibition provides a very fine analytic survey of the noble experiment."