The Great Consumption Of Alcohol

Beer was existent in a time where there was a great increase in social intricacy because of the creation of cities from the settling of humanity after its practice of being nomadic.

Each drink has changed the world in many ways (good or bad). Starting with beer, beer steered people out of the hunting and gathering way of life into the agricultural lifestyle. People grew grains in order to make beer, but eventually in gave the people the idea that can also grow more crops instead of just grain. "Beer drinking was one of the many factors that helped tip the balance away from hunting and gathering and towards farming and sedentary lifestyle based on small settlements". Beer was also safer to drink than water because water was mostly contaminated. In the Stone Age, beer became the main drink, and it is still a popular drink today.

From the first years in American history, we have drank. Records of the first Europeans on America’s mainland tell about the colonists’ "great thirste" after their original supplies of European-made alcohol ran out. The settlers made their own wine. Eve Alcohol was imported from all over the world. Innovative colonists made alcohol from almost anything. One song from the 1700’s went like this:

“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.

Prohibition was the eighteenth amendment. It prohibited the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages. People would have never thought of "excoriating" alcohol until the 19th century (Tyrrell 16). During this time widespread crime and dismay arose. Some beneficial things did come out of this period of chaos such as women were able to prove themselves as people their temperance movements. During this time many things happened that led to Prohibition's strongest point and to its fall. Prohibition proved to be a failure from the start,. Prohibition was scarcely adhered to and also widely defied but out of this women had a chance to voice their opinions and prove themselves.

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.

In the early 1800s the Second Great Awakening was gaining momentum, birthing several movements such as the Temperance Movement, Women’s Suffrage, and the Anti-Slavery Abolitionist Movement. These movements also sparked the idea of alcohol being a threat to society as a whole, stating that it was a ‘National Curse’. Under this guise that by ridding the country as a whole of alcohol, it would decrease crime and cause an increase in other industries. The idea was

2. The author uses sources that date back to the Stone Age, to gather his information on the use of beer. He outlines how society changed from being hunter-gatherers, and relying on the environment for nutrition, to farmers who were independent of scavenging the environment for nutrition.

In mid-eighteenth century England, Parliament passed the Gin Act of 1751, which restricted the sale of gin through increased retail license requirements and higher taxes on such liquor. This measure was enacted to reduce the consumption of spirits and the subsequent crime it engendered. Indeed, gin production increased nearly 500% from 1701 to 1751. However, the general populace became engaged in a fierce debate for and against the new legislation. While authors, artists, and religious leaders argued for the act, economists, businessmen, and landowners argued against it with equal fervor. Meanwhile, politicians were torn amongst themselves over the situation at hand. Each group held the position it did

Beer: Beer was not invented, it was discovered. Exactly when the first beer was brewed is unknown but there was almost certainly no beer before 10,000 BCE. The rise of beer was closely associated with the domestication of the cereal grains rom which it is made and the adoption of farming. Beer originated in the Fertile Crescent in Egypt and Mesopotamia. To beer drinkers in the Neolithic period, beer’s ability to intoxicate and induce a state of altered consciousness seemed magical. This caused them to believe beer was a gift from the Gods. Since it was a gift from the gods, it was presented as a religious offering in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites, and in

This is where the desire for prohibition stemmed from. Alcoholic consumption was seen as the cause of much relaxation in social conventions, as it was the supporting cast for so much that made the time period "roar." The growth of organized

In the mid 1600’s, colonial laws attempted to control alcohol consumption, but drinking per se was not remonstrated. Between

Because of what was going on in the colonies, the British parliament decided a reform of the Sugar and Molasses act was in need. The Sugar Act reduced the tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon. Also included in the new act were more foreign goods to have a tax placed on such as sugar, wine, and coffee. It also placed strict regulations on the export of lumber and iron. This strict enforcement of the new act caused an almost immediate decline in the rum industry. The ultimate goal of the new act was to reduce the markets that the colonist could sell.

The reforms started in the 18th century and continued all the way to the 19th century as drinking worsened with increment in manufacturers. They aimed to ban the drink from the states and inhibit promiscuity, heavy spending, domestic violence, and death. The heavy drinking affected not only the families but also industrialization. Drunkards were unable to perform their duties efficiently in factories and industries compared to their farming counterparts. It increased the potential for sacking which would, in turn, deny the families income.

From fancy beer to the lowest quality that you could receive, beer was presented in celebrations or events because this drink “brought people together since the dawn of civilization” and this bringing together allowed the exchange of cultures and traditions to be passed down from generation to generation just like wine (39). These interactions shaped the mind of man, and helped them have