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Alcohol introduction in the 1920s
Alcohol introduction in the 1920s
Speech on the topic of abraham lincoln
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Okrent pushes the idea that Prohibition was an “Anglo-Saxon-Protestant issue” (192) and they were proven to continuously push for the cause. Politics and alcohol held close ties during the push for Prohibition (47), and Protestant “aristocrats” such as Roosevelt disliked this relationship, viewing it as corrupt. (48) Protestant women, like the Daughters of Temperance (15), were a force to be reckoned with. The biggest issue Protestant’s had though, according to Okrent, was the immigrant population and their usage of the saloons. (48) Okrent highlights that one of the forces in favour of Prohibition was the mindset held by many Americans.
Between 1851 and 1855, thirteen states adopted prohibition within their state boundaries. Future president Abraham Lincoln even discussed temperance during his 1842 address to the local unit of the Washingtonian Temperance Society as the state of Illinois moved towards prohibition. This time in history is representative of the process followed by many temperance organizations, that is, they worked more with state governments to establish prohibition within sectional areas of the nation. After the Civil War, national organizations and political party development elevated the temperance movement to the national level, although not to the point where the nation was ready to implement a national ban on alcohol. At this point, the temperance movement was still very sectional with a split in support between the immigrant centered urban north and the rural regions of the south and west.
The amendment went into effect on January 17, 1920, and Prohibitionists rejoiced that at long last, America had become officially, and irrevocably, dry. The temperance movement dedicated to promoting moderation and, more often, complete abstinence in the use of intoxicating liquor. Temperance organizations seem to have been those founded at Saratoga, New York, in 1808 and in Massachusetts in 1813. The first international temperance organization appears to have been the “Order of Good Templars formed in 1851 at Utica, New York”,which gradually spread over the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Scandinavia. One very important organization was the “Women's Christian Temperance Union.”
During the nineteenth century, reform movements in the United States led to an expansion of democratic ideals from 1825 to 1855. Throughout the Antebellum period there was a focus on forming a better individual and society. This was exemplified through the increased interest in religion, medicine, education reforms, transcendentalism, abolitionism, and women’s rights. One such powerful reform, the Second Great Awakening, brought about a crusade against personal immorality. Some advocated for temperance because they believed that with an apparently innocent “glass with a friend”, the young man rises step by step to the summit of drunken revelry, then declines to desperation and suicide while his abandoned wife and child grieve (Doc 4).
In the early 1920s, the views on alcohol in America had two very different standpoints. On one side, there were the people who believed that alcohol was a good contribution to society. These people were known as Modernists. On the other side, there were the people known as traditionalists who thought alcohol was evil and corrupt. These two sides differ in opinions which led to the debate against the drys and the wets.
In the 1820s and ‘30s, religious revivalism arose with temperance and abolitionism. The influence of the churches widely spread the movement, and they introduced abstinence pledge. The rise of evangelical Protestantism viewed the saloon culture as depraved and is against God’s will. Women inculpated alcohol as it was ‘destructive force in families and marriages’. Some societies who were the supporters of Prohibition, the “dries”, led campaigns on the abolition of alcohol at the local, state, and national levels.
Although many advertisements in support of temperance in the 1920s would have you believe that alcohol was tearing apart homes and creating bums, many of the actual reasons are tied back to national pride and religious motives. An address to Congress given by President Warren G. Harding on Dec. 8th, 1922, attempts to address the issues with prohibition and invites the Governor of the state to an open discussion. President Harding is a supporter of the 18th Amendment, but the majority of Temperance supporters consisted of middle-class Christian women. The average supporter saw temperance as a necessary sacrifice that would benefit America and more specifically the poor. Similarly, President Harding uses the idea of sacrifice and accommodation for the benefit of the Country to rally listeners.
The mid to early 1800s marked a dynamic period in America’s history. Powerful movements such as the Market revolution the Second Great Awakening gave way to new moral and socio-economic beliefs. These new found beliefs fueled a series of reform movement and earned this era the name the Age of Reforms. Although movements such as temperance restricted democracy in the US, to a greater extent, reform movements such as public education, women’s rights, and abolition expanded democracy by giving power and basic rights to women, slaves, and the lower class.
“Look at us. C'mon look at us! See? A couple of bums!” Joe exclaims to Kirstin regarding the harsh reality they are in.
Furthermore, the Temperance reform’s goal was to limit the amount of alcohol men consumed. In society, men had a better status publicly and didn’t hold the responsibility of maintaining his household. The people who supported this reform were the women to whom the effects of alcoholism had a great toll. The government stepped in and made selling alcohol illegal. Document E shows the stages of drinking alcohol which lead to death.
William Shakespeare’s Henry V is an extraordinary , determined, and a skilled figure. Henry V has the ability to communicate with people in such a way that it gives them motivation and hope. He demonstrates this by speaking to his troops in a manner that makes them all feel valued, no matter their social class. Henry’s greatest known speech is the “band of brothers” speech. This speech captivated everyone’s attention, not only because Henry did a great job in getting his feelings across, but because Henry spoke to all his men with respect regardless of who they were, or where they came from.
This changed, however, after an inquiry written by Dr. Benjamin Rush, “he accepted the notion that beer, cider, and wine were good for the health and well-being, but he put his prestige behind the argument that distilled beverages led to physical, mental, and moral destruction” (p. 127). This boosted the temperance movement like no other. Another temperance supported, Lyman Beecher, wanted the American public to stop drinking and trading any type of spirits indefinitely. After saying this, “there were estimates that five thousand state and local societies promoted the cause, that millions of pieces of propaganda were in circulation, and that a million members had pledges to avoid alcohol” (p. 129, 130).
The Temperance movement was a major social, or reform, movement in America that was mostly lead by preachers and women who aimed to decrease the consumption of alcohol in the 19th century and early 20th century. According to preachers, heavy drinking is a sin; They advocated total abstinence from hard liquor, and this became a reality when people started signing an abstinence pledge called a teetotalism. The 18th Amendment even called for Prohibition, the discontinuation of the production, transport, and sale of alcohol, in 1920, however, it was soon repealed and replaced by the 21st amendment. Later, an organized group called the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union formed to battle a rise in crime rates for all ages, destitute charities, and
"In the end John was forced to give in. Linda got her soma. Thenceforward she remained in her little room on the thirty-seventh floor of Bernard 's apartment house, in bed, with the radio and television always on, and the patchouli tap just dripping, and the soma tablets within reach of her hand - there she remained; and yet wasn 't there at all, was all the time away, infinitely far away, on holiday;....... only much more so, incomparably more, and without end" (Huxley 155) “More than twenty three million people over the age of twelve are addicted to alcohol and other drugs, affecting millions more people….. spouses, children, family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues at work”(NCADD). Alcohol and drug dependence plays a huge role on
America during the 1920s can be considered a cultural battleground as Americans were deeply divided over a number of different issues, including race, immigration, alcohol consumption, and interpretation of the bible. However, the differences between rural and urban lifestyles, specifically over alcohol consumption, is arguably the most divisive of these issues. In general, those that lived in rural area,especially in the South, tended to be more conservative and follow traditional beliefs. They believed in fundamentalism, which was the literal interpretation of the bible, and discouraged the teaching of evolution in schools. Those in rural areas also tended to support prohibition, which was a ban on the manufacturing and sale of alcohol, because they believed that alcohol consumption led to sinful