Ohio American Institutes For Research (AIR) US History Practice Exam

The key idea is understanding how Prohibition ended and why the Constitution was amended to restore legal alcohol. Prohibition was created by the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Repealing that ban required another amendment. The Twenty-First Amendment, ratified in 1933, did just that: it repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, ending nationwide Prohibition and returning authority to regulate alcohol to the states. This shift was driven in part by the Great Depression, since taxing alcohol could provide revenue and reduce illegal activity tied to bootlegging. A notable point is that the Twenty-First Amendment was ratified through a different route (state conventions) than most amendments, reflecting a desire to move quickly on this issue.