I hate the idea of netflix, their business model, and just about everything that makes it redundant with your public library and possibly an excuse to stop funding them. That being said, ken burns documentaries are really cool and a friend told me about them after watching them on netflix, so I guess, it can be a good way to find out about documentaries ? like your library collection. Ken Burns seems to be doing amerikan-centric historical documentaries that seem to deeply cover a subject, like the dust bowl, or the prohibition era here. This documentary starts with the history of drinking culture in the US, as well as the history of sobriety culture, from the middle of the 19th century to the prohibition era itself and it's reppeal, divide in the three parts, the first being about the various campaigns to ban the saloons, then alcohol itself, then the prohibition and immediate black market set in tones of the puritan angloamerikans against every other social group, most notably the german amerikans who made most of the beer. It then follows the rise of the mafia, who went from petty crimes to managing the alcohol business, the difficulties and lack of political will to enforce prohibition, and finally, the campaign building for the reppeal itself. What is surprising is that, unlike other documentaries by ken burns, no link is being made to the current situation, in many ways a repetition of past mistakes, and in this case, the historical transfer of funding from the enforcement of alcohol prohibition to the current war on drugs.
Review of Prohibition
