Prohibition, the end result of the passing of the 18th amendment combined with the Volstead Act sought to make America dry. It was called the "noble experiment" later in its lifetime and that's what it was, an experiment. If anyone in America in the early 1920's had been told that prohibition would live a short life they might have been surprised or even skeptical. After all it was an amendment set in stone, not easily erased. Plus it was fun being bad, if you had the means and money to do it you often went to little back alleys where you'd knock a secret code on some seemingly random door or you might go into a dry restaurant where a few well placed dollars in the right hands and a secret password might get you and your companion into a back room or a speakeasy.
Where liquor and good times flowed freely. Of course this good time was not without consequences. Crime skyrocketed as a result of the underground world of illegal booze. As the criminals and gangsters of the speakeasies and backallys grew more confident and grew more richer they slowly spread their way up and out into the daylight. Affecting even innocent civilians. Below is a trailer for a movie that I think really sums up the roaring twenties and how innocent civilians were affected by the crime of the mobsters.
Movie trailer
Prohibition, as a time period, is always capitalized.
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