Inventing the "American Way": The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement Book

This is a fairly readable and relatively fascinating introduction to Prohibition including the important aspects of politics, culture, gender, and race. It is, however, fundamentally flawed. On one hand, the size, racial/ethnic diversity, and cosmopolitan culture of New York City make it a perfect locale for a Prohibition study. On the other hand, I found myself continually asking: How representative of the larger American Prohibition experience is NYC? Lerner appears to argue for New York exceptionalism; he assumes a "trickle-down" effect where the anti-Prohibition attitude of New Yorkers makes its way to the rest of the nation. First, this is almost impossible to quantify. How do you prove that support for 18th Amendment repeal in, say, Indiana came from the efforts of wet New Yorkers? Second, I found a tone of "East coast bias" present throughout the book, the idea that unenlightened residents of "fly-over country" needed the example of New Yorkers to wake up to the dangers of the 18th Amendment. Maybe the other 47 states simply liked to drink as much as New York. A good study when sticking to New York City, but unconvincing when attempting to make larger claims about American society.