This image is the cover for the book Prohibition in Washington, D.C.

Prohibition in Washington, D.C.

Even in the city where the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, the party went on—a history of bootleggers and speakeasies in the nation’s capital.

Despite the passage of the Volstead Act, it was estimated that in 1929, bootleggers brought twenty-two thousand gallons of whiskey, moonshine, and other spirits into Washington, DC’s speakeasies—every week.

The bathtub gin-swilling capital dwellers made the most of Prohibition. This rollicking history brims with stories of vice—topped off with vintage cocktail recipes and garnished with a walking tour of former speakeasies. Discover an underground city ruled not by organized crime but by amateur bootleggers, where publicly teetotaling congressmen could get a stiff drink behind House office doors and the African American community of U Street was humming with a new sound called jazz.

Includes photos!

Garrett Peck, Derek Brown

Garrett Peck is a literary journalist and craft beer, drinking, wine-collecting, gin-loving, bourbon-sipping, Simpsons-quoting, early morning, rising history dork. He is the author of The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet and leads the Temperance Tour of Prohibition-related sites in Washington, D.C. Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't is his second book. A native Californian and Virginia Military Institute graduate, he lives in lovely Arlington, Virginia. His website can be found at www.garrettpeck.com.

The History Press