SKU: 95090419781

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

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Last Call: The Rise and Fall of ProhibitionA brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America's most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the US Constitution was amended to restrict one of America's favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages. From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea.

A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America's most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the US Constitution was amended to restrict one of America's favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages.

From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea. That Americans would ever agree to relinquish their booze was as improbable as it was astonishing.

Yet we did, and Last Call is Daniel Okrent's dazzling explanation of why we did it, what life under Prohibition was like, and how such an unprecedented degree of government interference in the private lives of Americans changed the country forever.

Writing with both wit and historical acuity, Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces: the growing political power of the women's suffrage movement, which allied itself with the antiliquor campaign; the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities; the anti-German sentiment stoked by World War I; and a variety of other unlikely factors, ranging from the rise of the automobile to the advent of the income tax.

Through it all, Americans kept drinking, going to remarkably creative lengths to smuggle, sell, conceal, and convivially (and sometimes fatally) imbibe their favorite intoxicants. Last Call is peopled with vivid characters of an astonishing variety: Susan B. Anthony and Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan and bootlegger Sam Bronfman, Pierre S. du Pont and H. L. Mencken, Meyer Lansky and the incredible--if long-forgotten--federal official Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who throughout the twenties was the most powerful woman in the country. (Perhaps most surprising of all is Okrent's account of Joseph P. Kennedy's legendary, and long-misunderstood, role in the liquor business.)

It's a book rich with stories from nearly all parts of the country. Okrent's narrative runs through smoky Manhattan speakeasies, where relations between the sexes were changed forever; California vineyards busily producing "sacramental" wine; New England fishing communities that gave up fishing for the more lucrative rum-running business; and in Washington, the halls of Congress itself, where politicians who had voted for Prohibition drank openly and without apology.

Last Call is capacious, meticulous, and thrillingly told. It stands as the most complete history of Prohibition ever written and confirms Daniel Okrent's rank as a major American writer.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 05/31/2011
ISBN: 9780743277044
Pages: 468
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 8.38h x 5.50w x 1.39d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 07/10/2011 pg. 24
Christian Century 09/06/2011 pg. 32
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SKU: 95090419781

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Perfect for a midi keyboard music setup
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I bought this to setup a midi keyboard for the worship team. I connect a couple ipads and the keyboard and it works great. It powers all the devices, has good length for the power cord and just works as intended. What else is there to say. It's a good product.
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Lots of ports, and lots of power!
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I was in search of a hub that not only had a large number of USB A and USB C ports but also was externally powered, so that it can give some power to all the things plugged into and take a little load off of the laptop. It is working great and I would recommend.
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Anker 8 in 1 USB Hub excellent choice!
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I’m always expecting more for my laptop power supply than it can do. I bought this hub because I needed powered connections not only to reduce the strain on my power supply but also help them operate more effectively. The Anker USB hub 8 in 1 solved the dilemma, highly recommend.
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SAMIAM
Natrona Heights, US
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It does exactly what's advertised, which is perform poorly
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1 star because it does exactly what's advertised if you scrutinize the listing, but what it does is so mind numbingly stupid nobody would assume it's this poor of a product. It comes with a stand alone power input, but to use it properly you need an additional USBC power supply to feed into it, and oh yeah also most of the USBC ports deliver low power, and the USBA ports deliver no power. This is like a weird peripheral stuck in a time warp torn between 1998 and the modern day. Nobody is asking for this and the subtlety of how dumb this design is is reflected by the "Frequently returned item" disclaimer. Whoever product managed this needs to rethink their career
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Worked fine.
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When I tried to plug in our new backup hard drive, I got a message saying something like "USB power exceeded." Bought this, plugged it in, attached the hard drive, no problems since.
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