The Drunkards Home Analysis

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

“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.

During the 1920’s many women complained of their husbands coming home intoxicated and being violent. Men would be under the influence and they would get very angry and begin to beat their wives and their children. On average the amount of pure alcohol consumed by the average American, on an annual basis, was seven gallons. Abuse of women and children was also becoming an issue due to the increasing alcohol problem.

The antebellum temperance reform was primarily motivated by religious ideas that would use the fear of the Devil and going to hell and cause people to fear becoming sinful from drinking. The Second Great Awakening allowed for a revival of religious feelings which would then impact the “Era of Good Feelings.” These religious feelings would help people through their troubles and anxiety and allow for them to believe in a better solution and allow for people to become less stressed and happier than they were without religion. To follow up the religious revival in the people at the time, “... they advocated religious faith as a way for people to ease the anxieties that led to drink; on the other hand, they made drinking itself the source of anxieties

The Prohibition Era was a period of time when the entire nation was expected to be alcohol-free, or “dry”. In January 1919, prohibitionists achieved the ratification of the eighteenth amendment to the constitution, “forbidding the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors.” The activists in the Temperance Movement had lobbied and pushed for this ratification for decades. Temperance activists consisted of women, church members, and employers. The main concern was centered around the idea that liquor made alcoholics and irresponsible people. The widespread support for the liquor ban was reflected in its approval by more

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.

The desire to control alcohol consumption, or advocate temperance, has been a goal of humanity throughout countless periods of history. Many countries have had organized temperance movements, including Australia, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Poland, and of course, the United States. The American temperance movement was the most widespread reform movement of the 19th century, culminating in laws that completely banned the sale of all alcoholic beverages. The movement progressed from its humble local roots to nationwide organizations with millions of members and large amounts of political power. The growth of the temperance movement resulted from the changes in society between the original American settlers and the post-Revolutionary War

People in the early 19th century, which the period following the America revolution that people drank a large excess of the alcohol. Because of this, many economic and social problems happened at that time. For example, there caused a vast amount of traffic accidents and the violence. Also, if it happens to the family members, such as men who are the workers, it will primarily affect the family incomes and the development of their children. Therefore, the temperance movement

The Temperance Movement in Antebellum America was one of the largest moral reforms of in 1800s. Several members of the community fought for the prohibition of alcohol, rather than just limiting the about being consumed. However, “many farmers argued that the society and its desire to eradicate King Alcohol—as temperance advocates often termed alcoholic beverages—were a scheme to deprive the people of their liberty." Starting with main in the 1851, twelve states and territories outlawed the consumptions of alcohol. Temperance leaders came about and the movement created many different temperance groups that later used an assortment of tactics and persuasion to get their points across such as political, art, and even education. “During the first great wave of temperance protest lasting from the 1830s through the 1850s, working-class radicals and union organizers had urged temperance as necessary to both self-improvement and resistance to workplace oppression.”

The desire to control alcohol consumption, or advocate temperance, has been a goal of humanity throughout countless periods of history. Many countries have had organized temperance movements, including Australia, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Poland, and of course, the United States. The American temperance movement was the most widespread reform movement of the 19th century, culminating in laws that completely banned the sale of all alcoholic beverages. The movement progressed from its humble local roots to nationwide organizations with millions of members and large amounts of political power. The growth of the temperance movement resulted from the changes in society between the original American settlers and the post-Revolutionary War

The Second Great Awakening and the reform movements developed America’s morality and mainly religious faith of the nation. As long as the second great awakening was a religious movement, reform movements had to occur since education, alcohol, women’s rights, and abolition were closed connected to religions at that time and today so far. In the late of 1820s, a small number of reformers that time created the Temperance Movement, which was a fight against alcohol abuse in society. Essentially, some people got to know that the production and consumption of people for alcohol must be regulated completely because it was against their religious perspectives and principles. In spite of that religion was the most important factor to make decisions during that time, some political views were necessary to be considered, also.

“America had been awash in drink almost from the start – wading hip-deep in it, swimming in it, and at various times in its history nearly drowning in it.” 1 This quote proves to be correct, embodying American history beginning with the earliest American settlers to the present day. Keeping this fact in mind, how did the Temperance Movement gain enough strength to legally ban the manufacturing, selling, and transportation of alcohol in 1920? Through the determination and stamina of a multitude of factions throughout America from the early to mid 19th century, into the Progressive Era, federal legislation in the form of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America was passed. Beginning in the mid-1800s and

One major movement in the 19th century that grew from the Second Great Awakening was the Temperance Movement, a movement that would later lead to the 18th amendment which prohibited the sale and brewing of alcohol and ushered in the Prohibition Era. According to Lyman Beecher, in his sermon “A Reformation of Morals Practicable and Indispensable,” the excessive drinking of alcohol “will produce neither bodies nor minds like those which were the offspring of temperance and virtue.” This statement regarding temperance is just a small part of his larger viewpoint in the sermon, which focused on how we as Americans need to return to a more faithful society(Doc 1)(POV). This message would echo through the United States and turn many people against alcohol. In John Warner Barber’s “The Drunkard’s Progress, or the direct road to poverty, wretchedness & ruin,” Barber is depicting to families of possible drunkards the downward spiral of alcohol addiction that is most likely occurring in their households. Barber uses bible

With the passing of the eighteenth amendment in nineteen twenty banning the manufacturing, selling, and transportation of alcohol many thought the United States had entered a new social and economic era. The past few decades had seen alcohol break families, lead to an increase in crime, and overall poor health in the American people, and many were ready for this time of temperance to restore order (Scott, “Prohibition in the United States”). The truth, as many would learn eventually, was far from that. Prohibition led to widespread economic decline, an overwhelmed American government and a massive increase in the consumption and selling of alcohol in the United States through

Alcohol was made illegal in the United States of America in January of 1919. This act to make alcohol illegal was called the Eighteenth Amendment. The temperance movement, which was a movement to ban alcohol had been going on since the early nineteenth century, but the movement finally gained ground in the 1890’s. One prohibition group that greatly contributed to the illegalization of alcohol was the Anti-Saloon League. “ Most scholarship has credited the national Anti-Saloon League (ASL) for convincing Americans in the early twentieth century to accept legal prohibition” This group believed that alcohol was ruining the country and that alcohol distilleries and saloons were to blame. Although these types of groups were successfully able to ban alcohol in the United States, they were unware of the future problems that would emerge due to the implication of prohibition. It was inevitable that people would find ways to get their hands on alcohol even if it was illegal. Although there were some successes the experiment proved to be a failure and prohibition was ultimately dismantled with the passing of the twenty-first amendment. The grand experiment that was prohibition played a major role in the shaping of American society.