Eric Fraser Was hoping to hear more about the Kennedy clan and their bootlegging activities. Kennedys as a topic were largely avoided for whatever reason. Also, I'm not sure I agree with some of the conclusions of the commentators. When we make alcohol legal, we make a form of temporary insanity legal. How can people be then be held legally accountable for their actions while inebriated when this is legally permissible? How can we measure the health care burden on society at large and the increased insurance premiums we all have to shoulder as a result of the legalization of something that is addictive and fundamentally bad for us? I think the conclusions of this documentary were entirely too one sided and somewhat simplistic.

Gerardrobertson61 Found this series on Netflix and was totally fascinated by it, especially seeing I am an Australian where we never had any prohibition laws. To me, Prohibition was something that happened in the 20's and 30's, and included gangsters, mobsters and cops shooting each other and stealing their liquor, however the characters that lead up to Prohibition in the late 1800's and early 1900's are fascinating. I found this series to be another great documentary and I recommend it, 8/10

Carol Spears I watched this several years after it had been first aired at my local library. It was a nice situation to see it in. Some of the library patrons who were also attending had relatives and such who were involved in the "industry" during the featured years.The librarian had to make sure that we were sickened, or at least spooked by pointing out that all of the photographs of dead people were of real dead people and not staged.Some of the prohibition people were just simply nuts.Nothing makes crime like the de-legalization of something that most people can handle or will handle anyways.

runamokprods Any Ken Burns documentary is going to be smart, well made and educational. This one is also fun (in the plus column), but lacks the emotion, ambition and power of his very best work, like "The Civil War" or "The Central Park Five". Made with a ton of great movie footage and stills, and lots of tid-bits about the history of drinking in America -- it's out of control pervasiveness among men, especially working class men, that led to the push for prohibition that puts the now ridiculous seeming constitutional amendment in a somewhat more understandable light. That in turn explains the odd confluence of its backers, from religious conservatives, to well meaning social progressives looking to save the poor from themselves, to blue-blood WASPS who hated working class immigrants who drank more openly, to women fighting for the right to vote, and who saw how often alcohol contributed to domestic violence. The film also does a great job in showing how a law that tens of millions of Americans will simply ignore is much worse than no law at all, as it sows the seeds of disregard and contempt for the law, as well creating a fertile ground for criminals to give people what they want in a black market. Much the same arguments are going on right now about other "vice" laws, from marijuana, to prostitution, to proposed laws on fatty and sugary foods. One of the central questions of any democracy is how much and where does the government have a right to intrude into people's lives for the greater good. It's an important and complicated question, and one the series does a good job of raising. But at over 5 hours it starts to run a little thin, and the points and stories start to get a bit repetitive. I'm glad I saw it, and enjoyed myself quite a bit, but unlike many documentaries by Burns (and his equally talented brother Ric), I don't think I'll feel a need to re-watch it anytime soon.