Okrent explores the origins, implementation, and failure of that great American delusion known as Prohibition. "Last Call" explains how Prohibition happened, what life under it was like, and what it did to the country.

January 16, 1920 -- The struggle. Thunderous drums and Protestant nuns ; The rising of liquid bread ; The most remarkable movement ; "Open fire on the enemy" ; Triumphant failure ; Dry-drys, wet-drys, and hyphens ; From Magna Carta to Volstead -- The flood. Starting line ; A fabulous sweepstakes ; Leaks in the dotted line ; The Great Whiskey Way ; Blessed be the fruit of the vine ; The alcohol that got away ; The way we drank -- The war of the wet and the dry. Open wounds ; "Escaped on payment of money" ; Crime pays ; The phony referendum -- The beginning of the end, the end, and after. Outrageous excess ; The hummingbird that went to Mars ; Afterlives, and the missing man.