Last Call (2010)

Daniel Okrent — who has applied his journalistic curiosity to everything from the building of Rockefeller Center to the Civil War in his previous books — tackles the history of Prohibition, looking at why alcohol ''seeped through the lives'' of Americans before finally being outlawed by Congress in 1920. In 1763, the young colonies boasted 159 rum distilleries; by 1820, booze was cheaper than tea. Last Call is a potentially, um, dry story, but Okrent is a born storyteller. In his hands, the prodigiously researched narrative, rife with tales of corruption, adventure, and backstabbing, flies like fiction. A

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