Study Sources E and F
Which of these two sources is more reliable as evidence about Prohibition?
Source E is quite a reliable source. This is because it is from a letter. This means that the writer, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was writing to someone so he had nothing to hide as it was a private letter so there was no need to lie about Prohibition. However there is some doubt to whether this is completely reliable, as he is a wealthy industrialist and he raises concerns on the amount of drunks that go to works drunk and is concerned at the amount of production so therefore he may be biased.
Source F is not as reliable as Source E due to the fact that this is a speech and he is only talking about what the public want to hear. This means he is talking about all the positives and talking about how it will definitely be enforced by using strong phrases such as, “Where it is not obeyed it shall be enforced”.
In conclusion, Source E is more reliable than Source F because it is a speech and the other is a private letter which does not need to be a lie. Furthermore Source F was written during prohibition and Source E was written after prohibition, therefore in hindsight Source E is more reliable. Therefore, Source E is more reliable.
This fits in with my contextual knowledge because after reading many other sources I have found that prohibition was not very successful because alcohol is part of the majority of American’s life and therefore taking it away would just cause havoc.
Study Sources G and H
Do these sources prove Prohibition was successful?
Source G shows all of the illegal stills ceased from 1921-1929 and the gallons of spirits seized. In 1921 the amount of illegal still seized was 9,746 and this might sound good and make it look like the federal government agents were doing a good job, but not necessarily. This is because there is no records on the table that shows how many still there...