Closing Time: The Local Equilibrium Effects of Prohibition

How do different local policies in a federal system affect local land values, production, and sorting? We study the question exploiting a large historical policy change: U.S. Alcohol Prohibition in the early twentieth century. Comparing same- state early and late adopters of county dry laws in a difference-in-differences design, we find that early Prohibition adoption increased population and farm real estate values. Moreover, we find strong effects on farm productivity consistent with increased investment due to a land price channel. In equilibrium, the policy change disproportionately attracted immigrants and African-Americans.

Infant Mortality and the Repeal of Federal Prohibition*

Using new data on county-level variation in alcohol prohibition from 1933 to 1939, we investigate whether the repeal of federal prohibition increased infant mortality, both in counties and states that repealed and in neighboring counties. We find that repeal is associated with a 4.0% increase in infant mortality rates in counties that chose wet status via local option elections or state-wide legislation and with a 4.7% increase in neighboring dry counties, suggesting a large role for cross-border policy externalities. These estimates imply that roughly 27,000 excess infant deaths could be attributed to the repeal of federal prohibition in this period.

Social Darwinism in O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape: Studies of the Modern Issues and Their Influences on American Society in the 1920s

In the early 20s, O’Neill produced The Hairy Ape and introduced an account of the misrepresentation of proletariat states in American society. The article aims to demonstrate that The Hairy Ape is not only a play concerning the subject of social classes but also an application of Social Darwinism. It opens up new significant issue to highlight the exploitation, isolation, and alcohol prohibition and women’s role in the society that affected all classes of society in the US. However, a social study proposed that Social Darwinism is the essence for illustrating social classes, the cause of class struggles, and changes to the status of women in America in the 1920s. This paper presents a novel finding that men, as workers, were adversely persecuted, growing numb to their human responses and emotions; they were personified as animals, devoid of intellectual thinking and acting on a level of basic instinct and pack mentality. Concurrent with the demise of male intellectualism and emotional awareness, there was an advance in the status of women; women flourished and experienced a growing sense of freedom in terms of fashion and voting.

Social Darwinism in O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape: Studies of the Modern Issues and Their Influences on American Society in the 1920s

In the early 20s, O’Neill produced The Hairy Ape and introduced an account of the misrepresentation of proletariat states in American society. The article aims to demonstrate that The Hairy Ape is not only a play concerning the subject of social classes but also an application of Social Darwinism. It opens up new significant issue to highlight the exploitation, isolation, and alcohol prohibition and women’s role in the society that affected all classes of society in the US. However, a social study proposed that Social Darwinism is the essence for illustrating social classes, the cause of class struggles, and changes to the status of women in America in the 1920s. This paper presents a novel finding that men, as workers, were adversely persecuted, growing numb to their human responses and emotions; they were personified as animals, devoid of intellectual thinking and acting on a level of basic instinct and pack mentality. Concurrent with the demise of male intellectualism and emotional awareness, there was an advance in the status of women; women flourished and experienced a growing sense of freedom in terms of fashion and voting.

A Lei Seca e a ascensão do controle biopolítico estadunidense

A pulsão pela alteração da consciência alcançada por meio do uso das mais diversas substâncias, incluindo o álcool, acompanha a humanidade desde seus tempos primordiais e exerceu – e ainda exerce – um papel central na formação do tecido social e na construção da cultura humana. Anteriormente, a economia desses usos era regida por valores religiosos e morais. No entanto, a partir da modernidade, temos como fruto da articulação e expansão do aparato estatal um aumento do controle biopolítico sobre os cidadãos. A regulação de bebidas alcoólicas nos Estados Unidos ascendeu apoiada em movimentos religiosos de temperança dinamizados pelo crescimento de uma classe média que tinha como preceito a autodisciplina visando à ascensão social; o movimento feminista, que fazia parte do movimento progressista da época; e o interesse de grandes empresários, como John Rockefeller e Henry Ford, os quais doaram milhões às organizações proibicionistas e eugenistas em busca de uma mão de obra mais eficiente e um maior controle da vida privada de seus empregados. É sobre essa temática que me debruço em minha pesquisa de iniciação científica com a finalidade de melhor compreender o contexto social e político que propiciou o surgimento de uma medida regulatória radical como o Vosltead Act, analisar a importância e centralidade do álcool na cultura das minorias sociais como imigrantes e afro-americanos e suas divergências com os valores protestantes, explicitar o aumento do poder policial do governo – tanto federal quanto estadual –, além de rastrear as possíveis continuidades das mudanças ocorridas durante a proibição na sociedade estadunidense. A metodologia utilizada para alcançar esses objetivos é uma revisão bibliográfica utilizando uma vasta gama de títulos sobre o tema – sendo sua grande maioria no idioma inglês –, tendo como obra basilar o livro The War On Alcohol: Prohibition And The Rise of The American State, de Lisa McGirr (2016). Com isso, pretendo realizar um mapeamento da historiografia já publicada sobre o tema, além de disponibilizar uma produção científica para os leitores de língua portuguesa, abrindo espaço para novos desdobramentos na área em questão.