Drinking Alcohol In America During World War I

The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition is a very interesting book written by W.J. Rorabaugh which anlyze the high prevalence of alcohol consumption in United States during the early 19th century. When he explains how he started writing the book, he said that when he was looking for a long essay in a particular subject he came across a lot of temperance pamphlets from the 1820’s and 30’s. That is the starting point of writing the book for him. He has stated in the preface Ix that Americans drank more alcoholic beverages percapita than ever before or since between 1790 and 1830. He has mentioned

In 1917 at the start of World War 1, many supported the Anti- saloon league; many brewers had been German immigrants so people claimed that by drinking it would make them traitors. The lack of support for prohibition started to decrease as the violent crimes increased throughout the USA more and more Americans turned against prohibition, the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Society set up campaigns to end prohibition in the same way they had originally campaigned for it to be introduced. The Anti-Saloon League had a lot of support. The Great Depression helped the case for change.

Throughout the eighteen hundreds saloons were the site of rockus drinking, profane drunkards, and unthinking violence. This drinking culture was defined by masculinity and by free flowing alcohol that permeated all throughout America, city to city. The saloons became so popular with working men because it was time they could spend away from their wives and their homes. In Catherine Murdock’s book Domesticating Drink she argues that these elements of saloon culture, exclusivity, inebriety, and violence, were eliminated by the increase in popularity of mixed sex speakeasies, cocktail parties, and the overall domestication of drink. But this conclusion misinterprets the history of alcohol from Prohibition to the present. Although alcohol is now consumed without the exclusively of the past, it has evolved to be over sexualized and associated with a masculine culture of binge drinking over sexualized and domestic violence.

In the beginning of the Prohibition Era, the supporters of the alcohol ban were met with a pleasing decline in arrest for drunkenness, hospitalizations related to alcohol and the fall of liver related medical problems that were caused by the consumption of alcohol. These statistics seemed to support the tireless campaigning done to prohibit alcohol. This decline in alcohol

“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today” (PBS, nd). The result was the temperance movement. The Temperance movement was an anti-movement that swept across the country in the 1830s and 40s. The abolitionists tried to show that drinking alcohol was a sin and that the country needed to be cleansed. They called for a prohibition of alcohol. On January 17th, 1920, an amendment to the constitution was passed that banned the making, transporting, and selling of alcohol and other intoxicating beverages.

In his book, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, William J. Rorabaugh makes the argument that early American society was a place where alcohol flowed freely through every level of society. Americans in the late eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century partook in so widely it was one of the defining characteristics of the culture of the early United States. Using data collected from censuses, surveys, and reports from those who traveled across the country in its early years, Rorabaugh concludes that the drinking in the United States found no barriers with age, sex, race, class, or location. But his assumptions and conclusion are not proved strongly enough by hard evidence and data to be considered a reliable narrative of the early America.

Have you ever remembered the time people against the consumption of alcoholic beverages? It was the temperance movement which began in the early 19th century in order to reduce drunkenness. Nevertheless, the temperance movement promoted government to make the prohibition in the society. Citizens were not allowed to drink the alcohol and banned the alcoholic affected America to maintain their social harmony. Moreover, citizens especially the drinkers’ children developed more slowly and they were more liable to the accident so that the temperance movement can easily educate the alcoholics. For these reasons, the temperance movement should be justified as the most influential event in the U.S. History.

The temperance movement of the 1800’s compelled Americans to consider the impact of alcohol consumption on society. The temperance movement was one of many reforms taking place during the 19th century. Other reforms taking place in America were women’s rights, abolition, prison and asylum reform, education reforms, and religious awakenings. The common element in all of these reforms is the awareness and desire to improve society and thus American lives. This essay examines the temperance movement and its successes and failures.

Prohibition advocates did an impressive job of convincing the American public that alcohol was the root and cause of all their problems. Alcohol was the reason why families were destroyed, why women and children were beaten and why cheques never arrived home. Pro-prohibition posters were used to target men who knew they had a responsibility to look after their families. The news of prohibition also gave the chance for women to defend themselves and preach their rights since many felt that they had been victimized by alcohol. Not only was prohibition trying to target family members but it also challenged the patriotism of fellow Americans. When WWI came about, although it was at that moment a major topic to discuss, prohibitionists saw the war as an opportunity to give back to their brave soldiers by giving up alcohol. Slogans such as “Booze or Coal?” and organized efforts to preserve grain were used to persuade Americans to believe that patriotism and abstinence went hand in hand (Michael Lerner). In fact of August of 1917, the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act put a hold on beer and wine production, as well as prohibiting the sale of beer that contained more than 2.75 percent of alcohol (Michael Lerner). Many prohibition advocates, such as Reverend Billy Sunday, were effective through their speeches in convincing Americans that alcohol and the establishments associated with alcohol were pure evil and went against the morale of the American people.

In the 1900’s there were many social reform movements to help improve wages healthcare education and sanitation. The term Muckraker was popularized in the 20th century, spearheaded by writer such as Upton Sinclair, Jack London and frank Norris. They wrote articles in the news “exposing” the food sanitation industries, which lead to greater government regulations. Socialists and Communists began to stir up trouble with workers which lead to one of the first Red scares in the United States. I had no idea that there were so few regulations on food in the 1900’s.

World War I would help to turn the nation in favor of Prohibition. Some thought that a better use for the barley used in brewing beer would be to make bread to feed the American soldiers. In the early 1900’s, there was a group of people called Progressives. Progressives were people who supported or advocated for the improvement of society by reform. There were many progressives and supporters of prohibition and so the ban on alcohol was approved quickly and easily. Drinking alcohol was considered to be immoral. It fueled the worries of a negative effect socially and

In the early 1810’s whiskey became the most popular American drink because it was cheaper than milk and beer. A man named Lyman Beecher influences a movement entitled “Temperance movement.” This movement is when Americans needed to use alcoholic beverages in moderation or give it up completely. This movement has a great impact on the American social development because liquor was served as a “table beverage” meaning people would usually have liquor with their meals. This also impacted America’s social development because, with the Temperance, Act Americans had to find another way to hydrate themselves because the water is usually contaminated during this time period so the American people wouldn’t be able to drink it. Many Americans found this movement difficult because they had to resist temptation and build self-control.

The monograph Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the politics of Domesticity by Amy Bentley centers on the American mindset concerning food that changed during World War II; her thesis maintaining that the Roosevelt administration’s decision to institute legal rationing, proven in its ethical rightness in that this choice ultimately bettered the average American’s diet. Bentley justifies it through the apparent constraints of the massive undertaking the World War would require through the cultural and social approaches, which suited the gendered approach the author applied to this matter. And while she mentions economic and military approaches as well, a deeper analysis of the propaganda towards women in families is the central emphasis in many chapters of the book. Bentley collected information from many archival records such as the “United States Food Administration” and information contained within the “Office of War Information (OWI).” Her final conclusion is that the rationing process on the American home front during World War II had a positive outcome. Through these conclusions, however, develops a contrasting opinion from other historians; as her near overgeneralization of American unity

“America’s National Curse” is the name given to alcohol during the 1920’s. The name originated from prohibition advocates who were strongly against alcohol and the consumption of it. Alcohol was a nationwide conflict that many stated needed to be resolved by simply banning alcohol as a whole. Though many believed alcohol should be done away with, no one weighed the lasting effects it would have on the economy.

This major event divided the country in two; You were either a “Wet” or a “Dry”. The “Wets” were the citizens who were against the Eighteenth Amendment. This group was all for selling and drinking alcohol, they enjoyed it. The “Drys” on the other hand, were for this law. The “Drys” agreed that heavy drinking should be banned. In 1919, the “Wets” consisted of about fifty-three percent of the states in the