I am writing a short book on the Women's Temperance Crusade in Oxford,
Ohio.  In my epilogue I offer an explanation for why this college town
allegedly became America's 3.2 beer capital.  In 1917 the village had
enacted local prohibition of intoxicating beverages.  When the state
and the country repealed prohibition, the mayor initially assumed that
the local law would continue to ban all alcoholic drinks.  For 3.2
beer, this did not turn out to be true.  My explanation is this: while
waiting for the ratification of a constitutional amendment repealing
the Eighteenth Amendment, Congress in March 1933 changed the Volstead
Act definition of an intoxicating beverage as more than 0.5 alcohol.
The new definition was more than 3.2 alcohol.  In other words, 3.2
beer became legal in April 1933, several months before the repeal of
National Prohibition.  The Ohio legislature enacted parallel
legislation.  For most of the state and the country, 3.2 beer became
irrelevant in December 1933 when the Eighteenth Amendment was
repealed.  In Oxford, 3.2 beer became legal in April 1933 because the
state had defined it as non-intoxicating.  Local government had no
power to prohibit it.  In December 1933 there was no change in Oxford
because the local law still prohibited 6.0 beer, wine, and distilled
drinks.  In 1979, after a previous rejection by the voters in Oxford
as a whole, two precincts (student housing and commercial buildings)
voted to allow their sale by the drink.  This belatedly killed 3.2
beer.

I suppose that 3.2 wine must have been legal too, but I have never
seen it sold in Oxford, Ohio (where I have lived since 1969).

Any suggestions?  Comments?

David Fahey