SubscribeBy the early decades of the 19th century, Americans drank roughly three times as much alcohol as they do in the 1990s.
At its peak in 1855, 13 of 40 states and territories had adopted legal prohibition. By the 1870s, public opinion had turned back, and liquor was flowing freely again; then, around the turn of the century, a movement for abstinence gained steam, culminating in the 13-year experiment of Prohibition that began in 1920.
Over the history of the U.S., popular attitudes and legal responses to the consumption of alcohol and other moodaltering substances have oscillated from toleration to a peak of disapproval and back again in cycles roughly 70 years long. Although other nations appear to have embraced the virtues of moderation, the U.S. continues to swing slowly back and forth between extremes. The length of these trends may explain why most people are unaware of our repetitive history.
It now appears that a third era of temperance is under way in the U.S. Alcohol consumption peaked around 1980 and has since fallen by about 15 percent. The biggest drop has been in distilled spirits, but wine use has also waned. Beer sales have fallen less, but nonalcoholic brews—replicas of Prohibition’s “near beer”—have been rising in popularity.
In 1988 Congress set up the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (osap) under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services. The osap provided what it called “editorial guidelines” to encourage media to adopt new ways of describing drug and alcohol use. Instead of referring to “responsible use” of alcohol, for example, the office suggested that newspapers and magazines should speak simply of “use, since there is a risk associated with all use.” This language suggests that there is no safe threshold of consumption—a view also espoused by the American Temperance Society in the 1840s and the Anti-Saloon League early in this century. The osap also evaluated information on alcohol and drugs intended for distribution to schools and communities. It asserted that “materials recommending a designated driver should be rated unacceptable. They encourage heavy alcohol use by implying it is okay to drink to intoxication as long as you don’t drive.”
Annual consumption peaked around 1830 at an estimated 7.1 gallons of alcohol per adult.
In each era of reform, people have tried to influence the education of children and to portray alcohol in a new, presumably more correct light. Today the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (csap, the successor to the osap) works through prevention materials distributed to schools, but the champion of early efforts was the WCTU’s Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction. It successfully fought for mandatory temperance lessons in the public schools and oversaw the writing of approved texts. Pupils would learn, among other things, that “the majority of beer drinkers die of dropsy”; “when alcohol passes down the throat it burns off the skin, leaving it bare and burning”; and “alcohol clogs the brain and turns the liver quickly from yellow to green to black.”
Is our Puritan tradition of uncompromising moral stances still supplying righteous energy to the battle against alcohol? During the 1920s, when many nations of the Western world turned against alcohol, a sustained campaign in the Netherlands led by the workers’ movement and religious groups reduced alcohol consumption by 1930 to a very low level, but without legal prohibition. Likewise in Britain: the antialcohol movement reduced consumption even though it did not result in legal bans. Apparently, each nation has its own style of control.
"Time to wake up, citizen! Wake up, the Physical Jerks will begin in three minutes!"
Winston sprang to attention in front of the telescreen, upon which the image of a youngish woman, scrawny but muscular, dressed in tunic and gym-shoes, had already appeared.
'Arms bending and stretching!' she rapped out. 'Take your time by me. One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! Come on, comrades, put a bit of life into it! One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! ...'
« Older Charlie the Pug dressed as famous people.... | Some vintage photographs of la... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
No. All the regulations in the world won't tear someone from their vices. Should indulging in booze, cigarettes, etc, be only a privilige of the wealthy?
posted by jonmc at 8:45 AM on August 25, 2006