Beers Don’t Hit Women, Italians Do | Prohibition (Part 1)
Fin vs History
This episode traces the origins and early momentum of American Prohibition, beginning with colonial-era drinking habits that normalized heavy alcohol consumption from childhood through adulthood. It explores how
Key takeaways
- Colonial Americans consumed an estimated 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol annually by 1830, with George Washington's 1787 farewell party featuring over 200 bottles of wine and spirits.
- The Whiskey Rebellion (1794) erupted after Alexander Hamilton imposed a federal tax on distilled spirits, forcing President Washington to personally lead 13,000 troops to suppress armed farmers in Pennsylvania.
Main topics
- Colonial drinking culture & early American alcohol consumption
- The Whiskey Rebellion & Hamilton's distillery tax policies
Notable quotes
"Beer doesn't hit women, Italians do."
Conclusion
The episode demonstrates how Prohibition was less a moral awakening and more a collision of gender
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:13) Welcome once again to Finn vs History. I'm joined by Horatio Gould. Hello. And we are talking today about American prohibition. Yes. When America was Saudi Arabia. When Sharia law ran the United Speaker 4 (0:27) States. Probably Speaker 3 (0:28) the only time in history there's been this kind of social engineering experiment. Do Speaker 4 (0:32) you think? Speaker 3 (0:32) Over like a Speaker 4 (0:33) short period of time. Yeah. I guess maybe like Cromwell's... ban of Christmas. I suppose. And Starmer's Speaker 3 (0:40) ban on porn. Speaker 4 (0:41) Well, that's a social experiment. We are currently living in Speaker 3 (0:44) British prohibition. Speaker 4 (0:45) Oh my God, porn abrition. Speaker 3 (0:46) Porn abission. Thank you. So, America in the early 20th century bans alcohol. But the story starts much earlier. This is the long road to... I mean, I didn't realise how drunk they were before this, actually. Yeah, Speaker 4 (1:00) they're like the Speaker 3 (1:00) drunkest Speaker 4 (1:01) country in the West, basically. And Speaker 3 (1:02) I guess that this makes a lot of sense as to why they're now so stupid. Right. Do you not think? Speaker 4 (1:07) Yeah. We'll get into how much they're drinking before Prohibition. Speaker 2 (1:10) Yeah. Speaker 3 (1:11) America in 1776 throws off the velvet... Steadying hand. The velvet Speaker 2 (1:19) yoke Speaker 3 (1:20) of British Speaker 4 (1:21) guidance. Yes. Speaker 3 (1:22) And immediately... Speaker 4 (1:23) sets Speaker 3 (1:24) itself... Speaker 4 (1:24) They say, fuck you, mum, actually. It's quite an emo revolution. They do. George Washington is an emo. He slams his door, he says, fuck you, mum. And we're like, okay. We'll let you work out on your own. How does the mother respond? Exactly. Gracefully. Gracefully, I'd say. Speaker 3 (1:38) Was Speaker 4 (1:38) it a success? It's too early to tell. Speaker 3 (1:41) I think it's definitely not a success. I mean, in 1776, the long road to drinking out of sippy cups on casino floors and mobility scooters begins. Speaker 4 (1:52) I guess it's interesting to see where America was built on the ideas of liberty and breaking off from a corrupt monarchy, but it just hasn't really panned out the way I think they thought it would. Well, much like prohibition, there are unintended Speaker 3 (2:04) consequences Speaker 4 (2:05) to all these things. This is kind of where we're at now. Speaker 3 (2:07) Okay, so the headline is, Serial poo smearer hunted by cops was last seen wearing thong and creepy Speaker 4 (2:15) mask. Speaker 3 (2:16) What's Speaker 4 (2:17) the image? The image is exactly what it's described. Fair Speaker 3 (2:20) play. The headlines nailed it. Whoever's Speaker 4 (2:23) on Speaker 3 (2:23) captions has absolutely nailed it. Is this in America, I take it? Yes. This is an African-American gentleman wearing a fanny pack and some kind of mask that keeps his mouth open. I guess you saw like backless COVID mask. Yes. Almost. Chaps. An assless COVID mask. and some kind of hat. And what's he got on his hand? He's got a bag of poo in his hand, Charlie. He has Speaker 1 (2:46) a dog poo bag, yeah. Speaker 4 (2:47) So he's been terrorising local businesses. They can't find him and he's been smearing his shit on the Speaker 3 (2:52) walls. Speaker 4 (2:52) A hunt is Speaker 3 (2:52) underway for a man who pooed in a bag and smeared it on the walls of a shopping centre. Speaker 4 (2:56) So I'm just saying that the kind of grand ideas of the founding fathers, I don't Speaker 3 (3:01) know Speaker 4 (3:01) if they've materialised. Well, Speaker 3 (3:03) I think there's a limit Speaker 4 (3:04) to freedom. Speaker 3 (3:05) And I think this is the... The problem is if anything goes, then this is what America is. This doesn't happen in Britain. No, it doesn't. What is it? Is it Speaker 1 (3:16) possibly like a superhero costume? Speaker 4 (3:18) What's the superhero? Fucking poo smearer Speaker 3 (3:22) man. Speaker 1 (3:22) Poo guy. Captain Poo. Speaker 3 (3:25) It could be. Yeah. It could be. Which Speaker 1 (3:27) means that the ideas have worked because he's trying to help people. He's just doing it in the wrong way. How is he helping people? He doesn't know how to help Speaker 3 (3:35) people. Speaker 1 (3:35) Well, Speaker 3 (3:35) then Speaker 1 (3:35) the ideas haven't worked. He's creating Speaker 4 (3:36) jobs. Yes, but I feel that he's being inspired by negative role models if he thinks that's a superhero. Well, Speaker 3 (3:43) there's such a thing as negative liberty and positive Speaker 4 (3:45) liberty. Scatman. Sorry? Speaker 3 (3:46) Scatman. Scatman. We got that fair enough. There's negative liberty and positive liberty. So America is founded on the idea of negative liberty, which is to protect people from the tyranny of government. Right. And then into the prohibition era, it's about... protecting people from the tyranny of monopolies it's more of a positive liberty yeah but it's the Speaker 4 (4:05) opposite of liberty the prohibition it's like so un-american well that's Speaker 3 (4:07) what's fascinating about it it's kind of this massive but actually you would say i was thinking about last night really reagan marks the end of a sort of hundred years where America is actually trying to intervene in people's lives. But now, I mean, this is, yeah, this is, I guess this is the freedom, isn't it? It's just a guy in pants, pooing in bags and smearing it on shopping Speaker 4 (4:28) centre walls. Listen, we Speaker 3 (4:29) all find shopping centres stressful, okay? For men, particularly, there should be a German word for when a man has been in a shopping centre too long. And he wants to smear his poo Speaker 4 (4:38) on Speaker 3 (4:38) the Speaker 4 (4:38) walls. Speaker 3 (4:38) Well, I've never got to that stage, but I can see... But look at the... I'm on that spectrum. Speaker 4 (4:42) Look at the confidence in the way he's walking around. It is like he's just doing window shopping. Well, he's Speaker 3 (4:46) an artist. Speaker 2 (4:47) He's Speaker 3 (4:48) a window smearer. But I do find shopping centres stressful. I think they speak to women more than they do men. Sure. And I, you know, I'd say that I'm on his spectrum. Thankfully, I'm Speaker 4 (4:58) not anywhere Speaker 3 (4:58) near him. But I'd say that like autism, we have the same condition. Yeah. Speaker 4 (5:02) What have you found? You Speaker 3 (5:04) found Speaker 4 (5:04) a German word for... Dad in a shopping centre bored. Read that out, please. Speaker 3 (5:08) This is a German word for a dad in a shopping centre so existentially numbed and wanting to shit on the walls. Go on, Charlie. Go on. Speaker 1 (5:22) You've not read that out at all. You actually speak German. Speaker 3 (5:31) So Speaker 4 (5:31) that feeling. I have Speaker 3 (5:33) that feeling quite a lot. Speaker 4 (5:34) That feeling when? Speaker 3 (5:35) Yeah. Yeah, it's not very memeable. I'll give it that. But, you know, German memes are difficult. German memes are difficult, you know. But I quite often have a sense of ein kaufzentrum vaters beteend freundungsband bei scheißendrang when I go to Stratford Westfield, for example. Yes, very much so. It Speaker 4 (5:54) is Speaker 3 (5:54) hell on Speaker 4 (5:54) earth. Speaker 3 (5:54) Thankfully, I would say that I'm a non-offending ein kaufzentrum vaters beteend freundungsband bei scheißendrang. Speaker 4 (6:01) Or a latent ein kaufzentrum vaters beteend freundungsband bei scheißendrang. A latent ein kaufzentrum vaters Speaker 3 (6:04) beteend freundungsband bei scheißendrang. But I do get a sense... Do you relate to that at all? I completely hate... Speaker 4 (6:12) shopping centers but it's because they're a non-place that fucks up your there's a there's a deep it fucks up your humanity deep down i think so because you feel you could be anywhere you're in a loading bay it feels like you're in the matrix immediately yes There's no specific or unique features to a shopping centre. It could be literally anywhere. Speaker 3 (6:28) Thankfully, in Britain, we have safeguards against the extremes Speaker 4 (6:32) of this. And is that the kind of social pressures? Speaker 3 (6:36) Well, it's just a milder society, isn't it? We're used to social democracy and we're used to state intervention and we're used to, crucially, a safety net. Speaker 4 (6:44) Yes, and maybe we don't fetishise... Freedom. Freedom. In the same way. Yeah, it's not like... We get it. Like, liberty is a big part of the British, you know, identity in many ways, but we're not screaming it as we chuck our poo. Everything in Speaker 3 (6:59) moderation. Everything in moderation. Right. America does not do that. Speaker 4 (7:02) Sorry to bring it up again, but even Charlie's poo throwing, he's an English poo thrower for sure. It is still done within the privacy of his own bathroom. Whatever Speaker 3 (7:10) you do in your own bathroom. Do you know Speaker 4 (7:11) what I mean? There's still, there's a level of an internal life, a rich internal life. It's not taking it out into the shopping centres. It is... It's not in the Speaker 3 (7:19) public square. In Britain, we may be... Speaker 4 (7:23) We Speaker 3 (7:23) respect Speaker 4 (7:23) private life a lot in Britain. We respect hobbies a lot. You Speaker 3 (7:25) need a license to have a firearm. Speaker 4 (7:27) And Speaker 3 (7:27) you can shoot yourself on your own ground. Fine. But do not take that gun into the public square. Speaker 4 (7:32) A man's bathroom is his castle. Yes. And Speaker 3 (7:35) what he does in that castle to defend his castle is up to him. From the battlements. From the battlements. Creating a pulley moat. Close the drawbridge. Girlfriend banging on the door. Fine. But this is a, yeah, it is a sort of anomaly, the prohibition era. And it's very Speaker 4 (7:53) funny, the unintended consequences Speaker 3 (7:54) of prohibition. Now, let's get into how do we get here? How do we get to a country that bans alcohol for, what was it, about 10 years or so, nine years? So in 1776, the amount of alcohol that colonists are drinking is absolutely insane. I mean, this is, you know. Beer and cider and spirits are much safer to drink than water. But Speaker 4 (8:18) at Speaker 3 (8:18) this point, Speaker 4 (8:19) are they not Brits abroad? You're right. Because up until the Revolutionary War, basically, they are still technically Brits abroad. So Speaker 3 (8:28) imagine an all-inclusive, but there's no water. And Speaker 4 (8:30) that's Speaker 3 (8:31) what America is. It's a Speaker 4 (8:32) massive Benidorm at this point, technically. And Speaker 3 (8:35) again, you know, if... We will not live to see Benidorm in 250 years. But it will probably be America. Speaker 4 (8:41) When it has a revolutionary war. When it has the Benidorm Speaker 3 (8:44) Revolutionary Wars, the Benidorm War of Independence. You know, the Boston Beer Party. They will, you know, Benidorm will become America in all but name. Yeah, the Speaker 4 (8:54) Benidorm Beer Cruise. Yes, exactly. Speaker 3 (8:57) So George Washington himself ran a huge whiskey distillery and at his farewell party in 1787, he had this insane bar tab where him and 54 guests drank. 54 bottles of Madeira wine, 60 bottles of claret, 22 bottles of port, 12 bottles of beer, 8 bottles of cider, 8 bottles of whiskey, 7 bowls of brandy punch. The Speaker 4 (9:20) most interesting thing about that is the 12 bottles of beer. Speaker 3 (9:24) It's a Speaker 4 (9:25) very small amount of beer. It's very strange. I don't know where that fits in. Yeah, because Speaker 3 (9:29) you don't normally speak of session Madeira wine. For Speaker 4 (9:32) sure, no. But any night where you've had 12 bottles of beer but 54 bottles of Madeira wine. Yeah, what's going on there? Speaker 3 (9:39) It feels Speaker 4 (9:39) like something very... Have they been having a lot of dessert? Speaker 3 (9:41) I mean, yeah. Speaker 4 (9:42) Madeira wine I try and stay away from. But Speaker 3 (9:44) it's such a part of life in early America. It's a form of medicine. I mean, they would prescribe children with whiskey. Whiskey was prescribed for snake bites because supposedly, you know, you get a snake bite and the venom slows your heart rate. So they go, well, let's just plough with whiskey. Is that why the drink's called a snake bite? It must be something to do with that. So a 17-year-old girl in 1873 was given three pints of whiskey. Pints? Is that on draft? I don't know. After a rattlesnake bite. Her circulation improves and the doctor believes that the whiskey saved her. Now this is obviously the medicine that Sandro still operates by. He has been bitten by a snake. It's Speaker 4 (10:25) alternative Speaker 3 (10:25) medicine, right? It is alternative medicine. It's Welsh alternative medicine. Speaker 3 (10:31) Traditional Welsh medicine. Traditional Welsh medicine. It's 20 pints, 10 margaritas, three Jäger bombs, double park, lovely. This episode of Finn vs. History is brought to you by our good friends at Surfshark. Ladies Speaker 4 (10:46) and gentlemen, it's Surfshark. Who else would it be? How many times? Who Speaker 3 (10:50) else? What is a VPN? A VPN is a big digital condom that you put over your laptop. So it doesn't get AIDS. So now you can stop putting physical rubber condoms over your laptop. There's no need anymore. We have Surfshark. There's nothing I care more about than our listeners' privacy. Speaker 4 (11:06) Because if you're using your own IP address, then they'll know where your command center is. Do you know what IP Speaker 3 (11:12) stands for? I-A-P-E-D-O. IPDO. That's what it stands for. So you've got to use someone else's. You've got to use someone else's. UPDO. UPDO. So you go from an IP Speaker 4 (11:21) address to a YP address. UPDO. I'm not Speaker 3 (11:23) PDO. I'm using a VPN. You can use Surfshark on an unlimited number of devices. Your phone, your mum's phone, your carer's phone, any one of your command centre screens. There is no limit. You can connect through servers in different countries. Useful when travelling, as if any of you travel. But that's the point. Go to surfshark.com and use the offer code FVH or surfshark.com slash FVH. Say it with me. Fat, Speaker 4 (11:54) vagina, hostile. Speaker 3 (11:56) Four extra months. 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