The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built America

Throughout the course of nearly a hundred years in the 19th and 20th centuries, the fight over alcohol, gambling, sex, and tobacco defines the American cultural experience and helps the country come of age. It is a time when condoms are illegal, smoking is pervasive, and alcohol is made illegal then legalized again; the great debate rages between the freedom to indulge and protection from the chaos of debauchery. From the 1860s to the 1930s and beyond, this series looks at innovators like Jasper “Jack” Daniel, Adolphus Busch, Buck Duke, Julius Schmid, Stephanie St. Clair and others who bring these pleasures out of the shadows and into the mainstream to build some of the biggest commercial empires in American history. Their successes and failures also lay the groundwork for the state lottery system, the Sexual Revolution and Sin City itself.