Playlist:  HIST 3678: Week Two, Politics of the Hoover Era by Kathleen Saylor, Alexander Street Press

At the end of World War I, George Patton, a military man to the core, was left with no war to fight. When the Great Depression hit, Patton was insulated from the economic crunch by his wealth and career. However, when the Bonus Army marched on Washington, Patton was forced to oust men who had once served him on the battlefield.

Herbert Hoover maintained that the Depression could be handled by local charities and that Prohibition was beneficial to society. However, when he lost to FDR in the landslide election of 1932, FDR favored the repealing of the 18th Amendment, and on April 7th, 1933, barely a month after FDR became president Americans could legally buy a bottle of beer for the first time since 1920.

During the Great Depression, it was very hard for people to focus on the enforcement of prohibition when people being thrown out of work and their homes are being repossessed. In fact, there was a very strong impulse to get rid of prohibition because of the depression. First, the government needed tax revenue desperately and secondly, the amount of jobs that re-opening the breweries would create was undeniable.