Lost in the celebration of those halcyon Charleston days is that the era spanning 1920 (when the 18th Amendment became law) to 1934 (when the amendment was repealed) was marked by raging culture wars, rampant xenophobia, political upheaval, and threats of death or worse that came more often via poisonous industrial-strength alcohol masquerading as low-grade liquor than the rat-a-tat-tat of a Tommy gun.

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And there is also the industrial waste associated with the alcohol fermenter.

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Britain now suffers among the highest rates of alcohol consumption in the advanced industrial world, and unlike in most countries, boozing is on the upswing.

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It debilitates otherwise healthy people and may well prove the ultimate cause of drug and alcohol addiction, obesity and many industrial and auto accidents.

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