Rating: 5 stars
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, covers the entirety of the most ridiculous era in American history - that time when suffrage, the income tax and World War I came together to somehow vote the Eighteenth Amendment into being.
Daniel Okrent is amazing. He spans over 100 years of history - from early discussion of temperance to beyond the Great Depression and the Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment - while maintaining humor and a conversational tone that kept me engaged from start to finish.
I've been reading a lot of non-fiction this year - maybe to make up for last year's rise of the celebrity bios. I do like to read at least two works of non-fiction a year. Keep the old brain noodle working. Keep it a-learnin'. Last Call is definitely one of the best I've ever read - intelligent, thorough, and fun. The book had me researching and discussing a topic I hadn't given much thought of before - besides what remains of the gangsters and bootleggers in Hollywood. So much about our culture today was shaped by those thirteen years... just read it, okay?
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