Item Condition: Used; Very Good
978-0399502996
An irreverent history of the temperance movement in the United States.
1965
in The Life and Times of the Late Demon
Rum, J. C. Furnas has written what
might well be called the first Wet
history of the Temperance movement.
Already acclaimed for his previous
books as one of the most original and
cogent re-evaluators of the American
social scene, he now turns his witty and
devastating eye upon the men and
women who sought to ban the sale of
alcoholic beverages throughout the
country.
Americanattitudes towardsalcohol from
colonial times when "the morning dram
was taken for granted like breakfast
orange juice" to the passage of the
Eighteenth Amendment, he provides an
enlightening example of how a vocal
and determined minority of cranks and
would-be do-gooders can influence the
mind of a nation.
In tracing the change in
From Temperance lecturers who
toured the country tirelessly preaching
the evils of strong drink, the Prohibition
movement grew first into a political
party that threatened to hold a balance
of power and then into a lobby strong
enough to change the Constitution.
Along the way it picked up such colour-
ful adherents as Dr. Benjamin Rush -
signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence; surgeon general in the Continental
Army; and propounder of the theories
that horseback riding was a cure for
tuberculosis and that liquor was so…