Prohibition and Scopes Trial

Do you think the passage of the Volstead Act and the ruling in the Scopes trial represented genuine triumphs for traditional values? Think About:

No. Prohibition was doomed to failure from the start because it undermines people's freedom to consume the fluids of their choice. The Volstead act was just some last-minute legislation to make prohibition work. It was too expensive and unrealistic and so it wasn't a triumph for traditional values. The Scopes trial wasn't a triumph for traditional values either. The trial wasn't about traditional values, it was about some backwards folk not accepting science or progress and then making a stupid law.


• changes in urban life in the 1920s
• the effects of Prohibition
• the legacy of the Scopes trial