This paper will pick up where other scholars have left off by exploring the history of the North Jersey Shore and the history of New York City as is relates to the North Jersey Shore during the thirty years preceding the prohibition era, as well as the years during the prohibition era, 1920-1933. The paper will focus specifically on the social and political events that transpired during the era. The main argument to which every other argument is designed to support is: the North Jersey Shore during the prohibition era was a battleground between two divergent groups. The first, known in this paper as the moral minority, consisted of native-born white Protestants with the other being international criminal syndicates consisting of recent southern and eastern European immigrants. Each group found varying degrees of support among the larger population throughout the prohibition era.

The paper utilizes three distinct sections to detail the reasons for the development and demise of each group. The first section explores the history before the Eighteenth amendment (prohibition) became law and the first three years after ratification. In the section, the paper argues for the reasons why local residents and tourists of the North Jersey Shore supported prohibition. The reasons why the state of New Jersey did not vote in favor of those reasons and why the North Jersey Shore, the site of many prohibition supporters, became one of the nation's largest ports for illegal liquor smuggling. The second section explores the middle years from 1923 to 1927. In this section, the paper explores the people's reaction to the North Jersey Shore transcending into a popular site for liquor smuggling and argues the reasons why the reaction was short lived. The section also argues the reasons why tourists and local residents changed their opinion of the Eighteenth amendment. The third section explores the final years of prohibition, 1927 to 1933. In it, the paper explores the manner in which local residents and tourists displayed their changing feelings about prohibition and the reasons local residents and tourists argued for repeal of the Eighteenth amendment.

The research to support the arguments in the paper comes mainly from newspapers published during the period; the Asbury Park Press, the Asbury Park Morning Press, the Long Branch Daily Record, the Red Bank Register, the Keyport Weekly, the Keyport Enterprise, and the Echo. Secondary sources used to supplement the primary research come from a wide swath of fields including, criminal history, economic history, social history and political history. All of the research in the paper restores a lost segment of the history of the North Jersey Shore and demonstrates the North Jersey Shore played a significant role in the history of prohibition.