Bootleggers and Borders: The Paradox of Prohibition on a Canada-U.S. Borderland

Between 1920 and 1933 the issue of prohibition proved to be the greatest challenge to Canada-U.S. relations. When the United States adopted national prohibition in 1920—ironically, just as Canada was abandoning its own national and provincial experiments with prohibition—U.S. tourists and dollars promptly headed north and Canadian liquor went south. Despite repeated efforts, Americans were unable to secure Canadian assistance in enforcing American prohibition laws until 1930.  Bootleggers and Borders explores the important but surprisingly overlooked Canada-U.S. relationship in the Pacific Northwest during Prohibition. Stephen T. Moore maintains that the reason Prohibition created such an intractable problem lies not with the relationship between Ottawa and Washington DC but with everyday operations experienced at the border level, where foreign relations are conducted according to different methods and rules and are informed by different assumptions, identities, and cultural values.  Through an exploration of border relations in the Pacific Northwest, Bootleggers and Borders offers insight into not only the Canada-U.S. relationship but also the subtle but important differences in the tactics Canadians and Americans employed when confronted with similar problems. Ultimately, British Columbia's method of addressing temperance provided the United States with a model that would become central to its abandonment and replacement of Prohibition. 

Table of Contents:
List of IllustrationsPreface: The Natures of BorderAcknowledgments1. Creating a Smuggler’s Paradise2. A Cross-Border Crusade3. Refugees from Volstead4. The Halcyon Days of Rum-Running5. Symbol of Sovereignty6. The Beryl G (and Second Thoughts)7. Customs Scandals (and More Second Thoughts)8. Neighbors and Neighbours9. British Columbia and the Origins of American RepealEpilogue: Paradox RevisitedNotesBibliographyIndex

About the Author :
Stephen T. Moore is an associate professor of history at Central Washington University.

Review :
"This is a sophisticated yet very readable analysis of Canadian-American relations. Well-grounded in the Borderlands literature, [Bootleggers and Borders] offers a nice balance of national histories intertwined with the importance of regional identities and cross-border ties in the Pacific Northwest." - Robert Campbell, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Capilano University, Canada, and the author of Sit Down and Drink Your Beer: Regulating Vancouver's Beer Parlours, 1925 "In the rapidly growing field of Canada-U.S. borderlands history, Moore has been, to date, the only scholar exploring the rich, fascinating, and completely unknown story of Prohibition and bootlegging in the Pacific Northwest." - Sheila McManus, associate professor of history at the University of Lethbridge, Canada, and the author of The Line Which Separates: Race, Gender, and the Marking of the Alberta-Montana Borderlands