The important role of the Temperance movement throughout American history is analyzed as clashes and conflicts between rival social systems, cultures, and status groups. Sometimes the "dry" is winning the classic battle for prestige and political power. Sometimes, as in today's society, he is losing. This significant contribution to the theory of status conflict also discloses the importance of political acts as symbolic acts and offers a dramatistic theory of status politics, Gusfield provides a useful addition to the economic and psychological modes of analysis current in the study of political and social movements.

Prohibition was a grassroots movement that changed America. Through an engaging recounting of historical events accompanied by eye-catching imagery, students will get to know some of Prohibition's dynamic leaders through their own words and actions, including Carry Nation who swung her ax to break up saloons, and Frances Willard who was a leader of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Readers will meet Purley Baker, the persuasive lobbyist who convinced lawmakers to carry out the plans of his organization, the Anti-Saloon League, and ban the sale and manufacture of distilled spirits. A detailed chronology, chapter notes, and a further reading section with books, websites, and films offer in-depth information and additional resources for study.

Discusses the temperance movement in American history, including important figures in the movement, the history of temperance, and the period of Prohibition in the United States.

Through an examination of the two icons of the nineteenth century American temperance movement -- the self-made man and the crusading woman -- Fletcher demonstrates the evolving meaning and context of temperance and gender.

Intended for high school and college students, teachers, adult educational groups, and general readers, this book is of value to them primarily as a learning and reference tool. It also provides a critical perspective on the actions and legacies of ordinary and elite blacks and their non-black allies.