USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -What is bootlegging? In U.S. history, bootlegging was the illegal manufacture, transport, distribution, or sale of alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition period (1920–33), when those activities were forbidden under the Eighteenth Amendment (1919) to the U.S. Constitution.

Detailed explanation-2: -It seems that Gatsby, with Wolfshiem’s help, became rich through bootlegging (unlawful distribution of alcoholic drink – the supply of which was prohibited in America during the 1920s). Tom challenges him with this accusation when the two meet at a drinking party at the Plaza Hotel, in New York’s Manhattan district.

Detailed explanation-3: -: a person who makes or sells alcoholic liquor illegally.

Detailed explanation-4: -Rum Runners of the Saint Lawrence “bootleggers” were those who moved the illegal liquids across land. Much of the alcohol that was seeping into the United States during the Prohibition made its way in through Canada via the St. Lawrence River under the cover of darkness.

Detailed explanation-5: -Etymology. From bootleg +-er. Originally a nickname given to smugglers in King George III’s reign, derived from the smugglers’ custom of hiding packages of valuables in the legs of their large sea-boots when dodging the king’s coastguardsmen.