Ben Affleck's gangster film Live By Night is a great opportunity to introduce your classes to the period of Prohibition.
Live By Night centres on the organised crime gangs which profited from Prohibition by producing or importing illicit alcohol and running underground bars called speakeasies.
The Bill of Rights Institute has free downloadable teaching resources about the Prohibition era. Scroll down in the essay pdf to the 500-word version, which can be used from B1. It gives insight into the reasons for Prohibition (World War One, domestic violence…), the problems it provoked (gang warfare) and its eventual abolition. There's a Prohibition dinner party activity to follow up, and a pictionary activity.
Copyright(s) :
Claire Folger/Warner Bros