In the early 1900s you had a class of rough and tumble characters that hung out in saloons, and then you had the Anti-Saloon Organization (ASO) that felt that booze was tearing apart the fabric of society.
In 1919 the ASO pushed their extreme position and the 18th amendment to the Constitution made the sale and manufacture of alcohol illegal. Rather than find some middle ground, the ASO sought the extreme position of total abstinence, which was their eventual downfall. This extreme position caused new Anti-Prohibition organizations to take up the fight to repeal the 18th amendment. In 1933 the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment.
While many parallels can be drawn between Prohibition and current political events, a business lesson with respect to negotiations shows that if you take an extreme position and push it hard, you potentially could win the battle, but will lose the war in the end. Your actions will galvanize the opposition in their resolve to defeat you.
