How lawless was America during prohibition?

Those behind Prohibition saw a ban on the sale of 'intoxicating liquors' as a crusade against a moral evil. But the big ... Lawless supplement ... Often deeply religious, they saw Prohibition as a kind of social reform, a crusade to clean up the American city and restore the founding virtues of the godly republic. read more

Neither Mexico nor Canada had any intention of clamping down on breweries and distilleries near the American border; indeed, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, Winston Churchill, thought that Prohibition was"an affront to the whole history of mankind". read more

Other than the usual sins, the US was not quite like the movies. Gangsters stuck mainly to killing other gangsters. Wealthy people got legal “medicinal alcohol” including very fine whiskey. read more

The novel is told from both the perspectives of the three Bondurant brothers, mainly focusing on the youngest, Jack, and of the writer Sherwood Anderson, who described Franklin County in that period as the"wettest county in the world" while working there as a journalist during Prohibition. read more