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Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. By Daniel Okrent. (New York: Scrihner, 2010. x, 468 pp. $30.00, ISBN 978-0-7432-7702-0.)
Last Call does not tell a new story, but it cells its scory well. The adoption of prohibition and its decade-long reign produced its share of colorful characters, from zealous drys and crafty pois to resourceful rumrunners and bootleggers. Consulting primary and secondary sources, the journalist Daniel Okrent focuses on such characters within a broad narracive of the Prohibition years, and he uses their scories to highlight the imprudence of regulating personal behavior in the United States.
Last Call is most noteworthy as a chronicle ofthe ingenuity of American drinkers and chose who vied to supply them. To illustrate the unceasing flood of alcohol, Okrent regales the...