Prohibition is a topic that is traditionally taught from above, with characters like Elliot Ness and Al Capone receiving much of the focus. Missing from this story, however, is the history from below; how the average person was affected by the change in liquor laws. Rural Wisconsin offers an interesting case for the study of Prohibition as the state's population consisted largely of immigrants. For many of whom, drinking was a part of daily life. Furthermore, the drink of choice for these individuals was beer, a drinking that is easy to produce in one's home. This study uses newspaper articles and court records to analyze who the ones most often target by law enforcement for drinking were. Through this information, it is possible to trace the trend of arrests and uncover new groups of people who drank during Prohibition but had not previously been drinking in public.
