Raising Drinking Or The Sale Of Alcohol

George Washington, a whiskey distiller himself, thought that distilled spirits were “the ruin of half the workmen in the country….” John Adams, whose daily breakfast included a tankard of hard cider, asked, “….is it not mortifying…. That we, Americans, should exceed all other …. People in the world in this degrading, beastly vice of intemperance?” and Thomas Jefferson, inventor of the presidential cocktail party, feared that the use of cheap, raw whisky was “spreading through the mass of our citizens (Rorabaugh 5).” Drinking was the culture of the American people. During this time “white males taught to drink as children, even as babies. “I have frequently seen fathers” wrote on traveler, “wake their Child of a year old from sleep to make it drink Rum, or Brandy (Rarabaugh 14). This is fascinating for me, because the people were crazy by allowing their teens including babies to drink alcohol. What more interesting is that fathers want their adults of 14 or more to go tavern with

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.

Young people have been attracted to alcohol since the early 1820’s, and it “...has rattled authorities around the world for centuries” (Clark 5). Through the 1800’s and into the 1900’s, “...anti-saloon activists helped to pass Prohibition in 1919 by circulating pictures of children sneaking alcohol out of taverns” (Clark 5). Teen drinking, however, climbed quickly after World War II and proceeded in an upward motion up into, “...the early 1970’s…[where there was a] successful movement to give 18-year-olds the right to vote” (Clark 6). And with

One side to this debate is that the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to around 18 or 19 years old, and that young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments. This idea is presented by Ruth Engs, a professor of Applied Sciences at Indiana University. She states that environments such as taverns, pubs, restaurants and official university functions can be considered to be controlled environments. “In these situations responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs. Mature and sensible drinking behavior would be expected” (Engs). In her article, Engs uses phrases such as “forbidden fruit,” and “a badge of rebellion against authority” to describe how teens view drinking. In her opinion, if the drinking age were to be lowered, young adults would no longer feel the pressure to drink in order to “be cool.”

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.

Consuming alcohol is considered a rite of passage for the average young individual. The minimum drinking age required to legally consume alcohol varies in each country, ranging from it always being legal to drinking being illegal at any age, but most countries have set the age at 18-19. In the United States, as of 1988, the MLDA is 21 throughout its entire territory, while the age of majority starts at 18. This paper analyzes the arguments to lower the minimum drinking age and unify it with the age of majority. The factors discussed are alcohol-related traffic accidents, encouragement of unsafe drinking habits, and inconsistency between the perception of adulthood and the MLDA.

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.

Before the nineteenth century, Christianity dominated the lives of its followers. But in the first half of the nineteenth century, there was an enormous divide that broke that previous stronghold - the Second Great Awakening - where new religious denominations came about. Following these new ideals were both reform movements that took to heart the newfound beliefs of said religious sects and a revival of antiquated religions, such as Christianity. The religious ideals of the Second Great Awakening influenced the emergence of religious reform movements that emphasized how its followers should take their religion and adapt it to their lives, social reform movements that addressed the unfair conditions numerous American citizens were forced to

According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not

The United States drinking age throughout all 50 states has been the same since 1984 when a law was put in place by the U.S. Congress punishing all states who did not abide by the legal age limit of 21. Since this law was put into place, it has become one of the most widely studied laws in history. While there are many arguments and new bills being created to reduce this age, especially among college universities, all have failed to become law. Over half of adults agree that lowering the drinking age would increase binge drinking among teens, and 72% believe that it would make alcohol more accessible

Several states like Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maine in the United States of America lowered their drinking ages to 18. As a direct result there was increase in alcohol related clashes. This clearly shows that the teenagers are not ready to be left to drink freely. This situation can be attributed to the fact that the

Alcohol-Related Windows on Simmel’s Social World by William J. Staudenmeier Jr. from the text, Illuminating Social Life, dives into the topic of alcohol and how its role in society can be directly reflected back to Simmel’s work. The text was introduced by explaining how alcohol has been a major influence throughout American history and how it has shaped the interactions of difference cultures, races and ethnicities by characterizing drinking as “conflict between coexisting value structures” (98). Simmel’s ideas about the core differences between dyads and triads was applied in the context of how group interaction significantly changed when the role of alcohol becomes a factor to socializing. Three different group stratifications can be seen

In American culture especially, drinking is seen as a rite of passage or assimilation into adulthood. Young people in many cultures are introduced to drinking early in life, as a normal part of daily living. Whereas in America, drinking at a young age is looked down upon, the reverse is true in societies that maintain the best moderate drinking practices. The idea of a minimum as before someone should be protected from alcohol is alien in China and France. Children learn to drink early in Zambia by taking small quantities when they are sent to buy beer; children in France, Italy, and Spain are routinely given wine as part of a meal or celebration. In the United States, the legal age to drink varies dramatically form others around the world but is still look upon as a step into adulthood. Though attitudes and behaviors vary in different places, drinking can be seen as a routine way of assimilating a youth into their respective culture’s social customs.

For countless young adults after high school the next stepping stone is college, however, students are not only learning from the classes they attend, but also from the parties. Consequently, they are being introduced to alcohol and plenty of it; learning how to shotgun a beer or attempt a keg stand is all the rage. Suddenly, people are viewing college binge drinking as a right of passage for even their youngest students. Thus, demands the questioning of lowering the drinking age to counteract college binge drinking. “The reality is that at age 18 in this country, one is a legal adult. Young people view 21 as utterly arbitrary—which it is. And because the explanation given them is so condescending—that they lack maturity and judgment,

Alcohol abuse was a serious problem facing the United States in the early 1800s, and the Temperance Movement resulted in a decrease of alcohol consumption. “In the 1870s, liquor was a rapidly growing $95-million industry with more than 200,000 retail outlets serving the United States. From 1866 to 1873, per capita consumption of beer increased from 4.4 to 7 U.S. gallons and production almost doubled, and distilled spirits were consumed at a rate of over 2 U.S. gallons per person” (Kyvig and Stecker 684). Women and children suffered from the effects of poverty, domestic violence, and broken homes. As a result of this, temperance advocates encouraged their fellow Americans to reduce the amount of alcohol that they consumed.