Prohibition in the United States

National Prohibition began in 1920 under the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act. Legal manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks were prohibited, but demand continued through illegal bars, smuggling networks and domestic production. Enforcement varied greatly between regions and communities.

The illegal market provided organised-crime groups with exceptional profits and encouraged corruption among police, politicians and public officials. Violence between competing organisations became highly visible, although criminal groups also depended on business arrangements and political protection. Prohibition ended with repeal in 1933.

Vincent B. Davis II’s Consentino Crime Saga places a Sicilian-American family inside this economy of migration, bootlegging and inherited criminal obligation. The period also underpins crime fiction about Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and the transformation of local gangs into more structured national organisations.