Toward Liquor Control
In 1933 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. commissioned Raymond Fosdick and Albert Scott to study alcohol regulation and prepare America for the return of legal alcohol and its regulation. They produced Toward Liquor Control, which provided guidance to policymakers as they set up regulatory systems for alcohol, and much of that framework still exists today. This reprint is an opportunity for today’s citizens to understand many of the origins of modern alcohol regulation in the United States.
Fosdick and Scott’s Toward Liquor Control has done more to shape modern alcohol policy than any other book except the Bible. Does Toward Liquor Control explain why Prohibition failed? It’s in there. What are the dangers of bootleggers and lack of respect for the law? In there. Does it explain why alcohol manufacturers should not own retailers? Does it discuss alcohol taxation? State run liquor stores? Why lower alcohol products like beer and wine should be regulated differently than hard liquor? Political activities by the alcohol industry? The need for strong and independent state alcohol regulators? Tied house laws? Alcohol advertising? The problems of drunk driving and growing use of specialty mechanical operations? The need for, but limits of, education related to alcohol and its use? It’s all in there. Items that this book addresses are still relevant to modern policy debates.
Click here to read the introduction by the Center for Alcohol Policy Advisory Council.
Price: $16.95
NOTE: If you encounter problems ordering your copy of Toward Liquor Control, please email info@centerforalcoholpolicy.org or call 703-519-3090.
Toward Liquor Control is also available in popular e-book formats. Click here to purchase as a Nook Book from Barnes and Noble, or click here to purchase the Kindle edition. E-book copies are also available for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes.
What People Are Saying:
“As Prohibition was coming to an end, Toward Liquor Control was one of the key documents influencing how the nation would deal with alcoholic beverages going forward. It’s as relevant today as it was then.”
~Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
“Toward Liquor Control is a study just as important today as when it was written in 1933. With the failed federal experience of Prohibition, Fosdick and Scott recognized the benefits of the states having the ability to enact alcohol policies most suitable for their respective jurisdictions and demographics.”
~James Sgueo, President and CEO, National Alcohol Beverage Control Association
“In his forward to this impressive volume, John D. Rockefeller Jr. noted, ‘If carefully laid plans of control are not made, the old evils against which prohibition was invoked can easily return.’ The Fosdick-Scott report helped show the way to avoid returning to the corruptions of the saloon era and provided the templates for alcohol control policy that all the states ultimately followed. Rarely has a policy analysis had such far reaching effects on actual policy.”
~Philip J. Cook, author of Paying the Tab