Spirits of Temperance

By the turn of the twentieth century, the US was moving ever closer to adopting a nationwide prohibition against all intoxicating drinks - but how did we get here? How did the US go from being known for having a robust drinking culture to supporting a constitutional amendment against alcohol? This episode explores the strategies used by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), breaking down how the temperance movement managed to achieve its ultimate goal. Smashed saloons, unhinged temperance hymns, and men in drag abound! Let's see how the US ended up going 'dry' in 1920.

Primary Sources:

T.S. Arthur, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There (1854).

Grace Clifford Howard, “The Woman's Crusade: Forerunner of the WCTU,” (excerpt) 1891. Digital Public Library of America. Courtesy of University of Washington.

Frederick Marryat, A Diary in America: With Remarks on its Institutions, Part 2, Volume 1 (1839).

Carry A. Nation, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation (1909).

Secondary Sources:

Holly Berkley Fletcher, Gender and the American Temperance Movement of the Nineteenth Century (Taylor & Francis, 2007).

Michael Lewis and Richard Hamm, eds., Prohibition’s Greatest Myths: The Distilled Truth about America’s Anti-Alcohol Crusade (Louisiana State University Press, 2020).

Annemarie McAllister, Writing for Social Change in Temperance Periodicals: Conviction and Career (Routledge, 2023).

Alfred W. McCoy, Beer of Broadway Fame: The Piel Family and their Brooklyn Brewery (State University of New York Press, 2016).

Louise Slavicek, The Prohibition Era: Temperance in the United States (Chelsea House, 2009).

Richard Worth, Teetotalers and Saloon Smashers: The Temperance Movement and Prohibition (Enslow Publishers, 2009).

Digital collection: Westerville Public Library’s collection on the Anti-Saloon League, including thousands of documents, images, stories, and songs about the ASL. You can access the collection here.

Written and recorded by: Kenyon Payne

Theme music: "Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Outro music: “D´vil,” anrocomposer

Additional featured music:

“Elven Language,” Atmani_Art

“Dramatic Background Orchestra,” White_Records

“In the Saloon,” Piano_Music

“Requiem to Mozart,” DirectToDreams

“Marching Music On Parade,” John Philip Sousa (Nesrality)

“Lively Big Band Swing,” nickpanek

“Wild West Saloon,” Table Top Audio

“Lips that Touch Liquor,” sung by the Women's Choir at Concordia College, courtesy of the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County

“Father’s a Drunkard, and Mother is Dead,” (1866), sung by E. A. Parkhurst

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