The Volstead Act came into force in the US on January 17th 1920, forbidding Americans to buy or sell alcoholic drinks, and it remained in force until 1933. The puritan core of America was solidly behind it, expressed through such institutions as the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. It was not mere puritanism, however; Americans in general were drinking too much, and a vast amount of hard-earned money was squandered in the saloons (pubs, in our language) while working-class families almost starved. As is well known, Prohibition brought a new sub-culture of bootleggers, speakeasies and toxic home-distilled alcohol in which respect for the law was eroded, and arguably did not recover in decades. Needless to say, the ending of this long dry spell was celebrated by an orgy of drinking, most of it good-humoured. A lively read.