Profits, Power, and Prohibition: American Alcohol Reform and the Industrializing of America, 1800-1930 (SUNY Series in New Social Studies on Alcohol and Drugs)

This is the first comprehensive study of America’s anti-liquor/anti-drug movement from its origins in the late eighteenth century through the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933. It examines the role that capitalism played in defining and shaping this reform movement. Rumbarger challenges conventional explanations of the history of this movement and offers compelling counter-arguments to explain the movement’s historical development. He successfully links the ethics of business enterprise and those of moral reform of society for the betterment of enterprise. The author reveals how readily economic power is transformed—first into social power and finally into political power in the context of a bourgeois democracy. He shows that the motivation driving this reform movement was not religiosity, but profit, and that anti-liquor capitalists viewed the "human equation" as determinant of America’s prospect for creating wealth. For over 100 years, employers participated in the temperance crusade because of their concern with the behavior and lifestyles of workers. Capitalists insisted that churches and other morally uplifting institutions were much better places than taverns and saloons for workers to spend their time. Employers believed that workers who did not drink were usually more efficient, disciplined, easier to manage and control, and less likely to make trouble on the job than workers who did drink. The author clearly views temperance ideology as based on fantasy and delusion about the capacity of American capitalism and the effects of drink and abstinence. Part one of the book covers the alcohol reform movement from 1800 to 1870 and emphasizes the social and ideological origins of such reform, the politics of moral reform, and social class and nonpartisanship in the temperance movement. Part two discusses temperance and the industrialization process from 1870 to 1884 and liquor control efforts between 1880 and 1890. The final two parts deal with the emergence and failure of antisaloonism from 1890 to 1914 and the re-emergence of prohibition from 1914 to 1919. Notes, sources, and index This is the first comprehensive study of America's anti-liquor/anti-drug movement from its origins in the late eighteenth century through the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933. It examines the role that capitalism played in defining and shaping this reform movement.Rumbarger challenges conventional explanations of the history of this movement and offers compelling counter-arguments to explain the movement's historical development. He successfully links the ethics of business enterprise and those of moral reform of society for the betterment of enterprise.The author reveals how readily economic power is transformed—first into social power and finally into political power in the context of a bourgeois democracy. He shows that the motivation driving this reform movement was not religiosity, but profit, and that anti-liquor capitalists viewed the “human equation” as determinant of America's prospect for creating wealth.John J. Rumbarger, former assistant executive secretary of the American Historical Association and editor of Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, lives and works in Washington, D.C. Part 1: The Early Years: The Movement Defines Itself, 1800-1870 -- The Social And Ideological Origins Of Drink Reform, 1800-1836 -- The Politics Of Moral Reform: Social Class And Nonpartisanship In The Temperance Movement, 1836-1860 -- Practical Temperance: Reorganization Of The Temperance Movement, 1865-1870 -- Part 2: The Middle Years: The Tradition Fails, 1865-1890 -- Ends And Means: Temperance Confronts An Industrial World, 1870-1884 -- The Beginning Of Conservative Reaction: Liquor Control And The Critique Of The Industrial City, 1880-1890 -- Part 3: The Climactic Years: The Emergence And Failure Of Antisaloonism, 1890-1914 -- The Collapse Of Third-party Prohibition And Emergence Of Political Antisaloonism, 1890-1900 -- Antisaloonism And Urban Reform, 1890-1915 -- Antisaloonism And Industrial Development, 1890-1915 -- Part 4: The Reemergence Of Prohibition, 1914-1919 -- The Anti-saloon League Of America And The Resurgence Of National Prohibition, 1900-1917 -- Denouement: Drink Reform And The American Experience. John J. Rumbarger. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [199]-260).