Speakeasy
Raising a Glass to America
A new book examines the role Jewish immigrants played in opposing Prohibition. Does it say more about Jews or about the broader American culture?
A Speakeasy Grows in Brooklyn
In the 1920s, at the height of Prohibition, underground saloons called speakeasies proliferated around the country. They got their name — according to an 1891 New York Times article — from one Kate Hester, who ran such a saloon in her Pennsylvania home, and who was known for telling her customers to “speak easy” when noise levels got too high.