Modern Times: Prohibition, Organized Crime, and the Emergence of a National Culture

Episode transcript:

In Episode 10, Pettengill examines the cross sections between American mass culture and organized crime. The combination of two decades of reform and a world war convinced Americans of the need to return to normalacy. Pettengill notes that this national impulse resulted in a relaxation of American values. This relaxation helped position gangsters as the primary beneficiaries of a market that demanded not only the product of alcohol but also a place to consume that alcohol. In sum, this episode is grounded in the emergence of the speakeasy. As listeners will learn, the speakeasy streamlined this relaxation of values and contributed to the emergence of a truly national culture.

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