The Prohibition Hangover

The Prohibition Hangover by Garrett Peck is a social history of alcohol in the United States since the end of Prohibition.  Prohibition left Americans unsure of how to deal with alcohol.  Is it a normal consumer product?  Is it a controlled substance?  Is it a gift from God, or is it Demon Rum?  Maybe it’s all of these things.

Many books have been written about Prohibition, but this is the first that asks, what happened after Repeal?  How did the United States shift from a country where abstinence was once the ideal, to one where two-thirds of adults drink?  We are now a nation of social drinkers, and most people drink moderately.

What Fast Food Nation did for food, The Prohibition Hangover does for alcohol. This book is a provocative look at contemporary American attitudes about alcohol. This is the first book to address how the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald impacts American society, particularly in light of the 75th anniversary of Repeal in 2008.

The Prohibition Hangover is a narrative nonfiction book appealing to general-interest readers. The book is based on primary research, including hundreds of interviews with people on all sides of the alcohol debate -- clergy, bar and restaurant owners, public health advocates, alcohol beverage industry representatives, and even Juanita Swedenburg, who successfully led her interstate wine shipment lawsuit to the Supreme Court. The author's travels frame the narrative on how central alcohol is to American culture –- through the California wine country, the beer industry in Pennsylvania and New England, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. 

This is an entirely independent book.  The author has neither solicited nor received funding from the alcoholic beverage industry or the industry watchdog groups.  The research, analysis, and conclusions are his own.

Cover design by Rudy Sandoval