Ken Burns: Prohibition

"Prohibition" explores the extraordinary story of what happens when a freedom-loving nation outlaws the sale of intoxicating liquor - and the disastrous unintended consequences that follow. This utterly relevant cautionary tale raises profound questions about the proper role of government and the limits of legislating morality. When the country goes dry in 1920, after a century of debate, millions of law-abiding Americans become lawbreakers overnight. Here are the stories of the petty whiskey-jobbers, big-time bootleggers, and brutal gangsters; the flappers who danced the Charleston in New York speakeasies; and the families who stomped grapes in basements and made moonshine in backyards.