After World War One was over, everyone was happy that they could go back to their country in peace. Everyone was spending, people were working, almost everyone was (relatively) happy. However, there were people that were not so happy. There were those who wanted to stop funding the Germans with the proceeds from their beer. There were those wanted the opportunity to tell differing views on creation in their classrooms. Also, most notably, there were women who were tired of being forced to be housewives and demanded to be treated as equals among the men. The crisis in values that occurred during the 1920's, as insignificant as it might seem today, forced Americans to reshape their way of thinking and make changes that left important effects on the years to come.
Contrary to common opinion, prohibition was not created to stop drinking. There were already laws against intoxication and many dry areas around the country (dry meaning in alcohol - not in water.)
Bible
Bible
English: Photograph of John Scopes taken one month...Also, drinking was on the decline. There were two main points to prohibition: preventing foreign enemies from profiting, Americanizing immigrants, and shutting down the saloon. "It was designed to kill the liquor business in general and the saloon in particular; but at the same time the amendment was not designed to prohibit either the possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages." (Kuzirian 178) Of course, (in a perfect world) this would've ended drinking completely, but that was just a side effect.
During the 1920's and before, most of the nations liquor was made in foreign lands or by foreigners in the United States. The Irish made most of the whiskey, Germany controlled most of the beer industry, and Austro-Hungarians controlled the wine industry north, in Canada. Much of the agenda of prohibitionists was to stop the profiting of...