Social History of Alcohol in America: Discover Its Ironies

The Spirits of America. A Social History of Alcohol chronicles the role of alcohol in US life and culture. It does so from the earliest Colonial period.

Learn about colorful characters. They range greatly. There’s the well-known hatchet-wielding Carry Nation. And there’s little- known Man in the Green Hat.

See how and why alcohol changed from “a good creature of God” to Demon Rum. Learn how Wayne Wheeler developed and perfected pressure politics to a high art. He did so to help bring about Prohibition (1920-1933). And how later many persuaded the nation to acknowledge its failure.

The Author

Eric Burns of Fox New has authored a fast moving book that captivates and holds attention. The Washington Journalism Review named him one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism. And for good reason. Mr. Burns writes even better than he speaks.

Among its many delights, the book often identifies ironies in the story of alcohol. They include these facts.

Abraham Lincoln said that “prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance or moderation.”
Many of the major supporters of Prohibition became the major supporters of Repeal.
Prohibition didn’t actually outlaw drinking. Discover what it did prohibit.
The number of drinking venues more than doubled in New York City after the start of Prohibition.
Two of the most effective and famous Prohibition agents enjoyed drinking cocktail and beer.
The co-sponsor of the Eighteenth Amendment creating Prohibition operated a very large illegal whiskey still.
Some of the Anti-Saloon League’s anti-alcohol messages were virtually identical to some of those used today. They include the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program and even by some federal agencies.

Clarifies Misconceptions

Burns clarifies some of the common misperceptions about the effects of Prohibition. For example, he notes that drinking did not increase. What changed about drinking was three things. First, what people drank (often poisonous rotgut). Second, who drank (women in large numbers for the first time). And third, how they drank (less often but much more heavily).

The book’s flaws are minor. Burns asserts that the Anti-Saloon League doesn’t exist anymore. That may technically be true. However, it is now (combined with the American Temperance League) known as the Council on Alcohol Problems. It actively works to influence public policy on alcohol matters.

Burns also writes that following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor there were no calls for a return to prohibition. Actually, temperance advocates did use the war as an excuse to try to impose prohibition.

Their first target was military bases and those in the military. However, their efforts were repeatedly rebuffed by both civilian and military leaders. Many other efforts to promote prohibition during World War II similarly failed.

Temperance Today

Temperance activists have returned more recently in a new guise. Sometimes called neo-temperance or neo-prohibitionist, the new temperance movement is active and growing.

In fact, today almost one in five U.S. adults favors making drinking alcohol illegal for everyone. Of any age. For any reason. Or at any time. Period. Not even Prohibition did that.