Taki's Mag. has a highly interesting article on  the root of the prohibition movement. Usually prohibition is seen as a movement led by fundamentalists when the reality it was, from it origins in the 19th century its principal support came from liberal reformers, the same ones that were the advocates of free love, spiritualism, radical feminism, communalism , and all of the other isms of 19th New England. These movements replaced religious belief and became the social impetus that gave birth to the modern Americans left.

The author also makes the interesting argument that prohibition would have been impossible without the Federal income tax, liquor revenues having been a prime source of government income.