Overview
How easy is it for government to regulate the morals of its citizens, or their social behavior? In Battling Demon Rum, Thomas Pegram provides an historical example with his narrative account of the struggle against alcohol in America, from the earliest days of the Republic through the repeal of prohibition. It is a cautionary tale. The groups that formed in an effort to regulate alcohol are the leading players in Mr. Pegram's story. He traces the moral and political campaigns of these temperance advocates, showing how their tactics and organization reflected changes in the nation's politics and social structure.Synopsis
A narrative account of the fight to regulate alcohol, from roughly 1800 to the repeal of national prohibition in 1933. An intriguing tale of social reform and of the limits of government-imposed morality. The best short history available of the politics and practices of American temperance reform....Highly recommended. --Library Journal. American Ways Series.
Publishers Weekly
In his extensively researched study of the temperance movement, Pegram (Partisans and Progressives) examines "the relationship between American political institutions and temperance reform." Although the early colonialists drank copiously, he notes, by the early 1800s many reformers related heavy drinking, which was engaged in by men chiefly in saloons, to an increase in crime and poverty. The author shows how a concern for their families' welfare led women like Frances Willard, who founded the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), to first become involved in temperance and later in prison reform and women's rights. According to Pegram, prohibitionists were most successful in getting laws passed banning alcohol during periods of political unrest. His informed account also points out how certain immigrant groups, such as Germans who visited beer gardens on Sundays, came to regard antiliquor legislation as an infringement of their liberty. In the 1932 presidential election, the majority of voters supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had promised, among other things, repeal of the 18th Amendment, and in 1933 Prohibition ended. Like others in Ivan R. Dee's American Ways series (e.g., last year's My Mind Set on Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 by John Salmond), this is a concise, thorough and thoughtful look at a peculiarly American experience. (Sept.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In his extensively researched study of the temperance movement, Pegram (Partisans and Progressives) examines "the relationship between American political institutions and temperance reform." Although the early colonialists drank copiously, he notes, by the early 1800s many reformers related heavy drinking, which was engaged in by men chiefly in saloons, to an increase in crime and poverty. The author shows how a concern for their families' welfare led women like Frances Willard, who founded the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), to first become involved in temperance and later in prison reform and women's rights. According to Pegram, prohibitionists were most successful in getting laws passed banning alcohol during periods of political unrest. His informed account also points out how certain immigrant groups, such as Germans who visited beer gardens on Sundays, came to regard antiliquor legislation as an infringement of their liberty. In the 1932 presidential election, the majority of voters supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had promised, among other things, repeal of the 18th Amendment, and in 1933 Prohibition ended. Like others in Ivan R. Dee's American Ways series (e.g., last year's My Mind Set on Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 by John Salmond), this is a concise, thorough and thoughtful look at a peculiarly American experience. (Sept.)Library Journal
Pegram (history, Loyola Coll., Baltimore) has written the best short history available of the politics and practices of American temperance reform. With sensitivity to the changing social, cultural, and economic contexts of drink and drinking, and with special attention to the role political parties played in using, or avoiding, the temperance issue, Pegram shows how reformers moved from moral suasion and local regulation to state-mandated and, finally, national prohibition. Women reformers and the Anti-Saloon League figure prominently among the reform lobbyists, pressure groups (the brewing industry), and progressives. In the end, argues Pegram, Prohibition failed because of the reformers' very success in going outside political parties and, thus, failing to invest them in its enforcement. An excellent introduction to a controversial subject whose implications echo today in moral reformers' efforts to co-opt parties and make public policy. Highly recommended for most libraries.--Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., PhiladelphiaRecounts the struggle against alcohol in America, from the earliest days of the Republic through the repeal of prohibition. Traces the moral and political campaigns of temperance groups, showing how their tactics and organization reflected changes in the nation's politics and social structure. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Excellent...Pegram's book is more than the 'noble experiment' [of Prohibition]; it is about all the experiments leading up to it and why they, too, failed.
— Roger K. Miller
Smoothly written.
A concise, accessible history.
An informative and readable chronicle...a timely historical text.
— John Powers
These long-dead battles put our own lesser war on cigarettes and narcotics (but bizarrely not alcohol) in sharp relief.
— Christopher Caldwell