Irving Berlin penned the immortal lyric “How dry I am” in 1919 as he anticipated the coming of nationwide Prohibition. The lyric has lasted, but the title of the song, “The Near Future,” is what Americans faced as they entered the 1920s. World War I, “the war to end all wars,” had just ended; amazing technological advances were poised to change how people lived; and Prohibition – one of the largest legislative interventions in private lives – loomed. This was indeed a pivotal decade for the country and for Milwaukee. The exhibit explored the roots of Prohibition, the social and political conditions that made it possible, the local and national reaction to Prohibition, and how all of this played out in the context of the 1920s.