Prohibition of Alcohol in American History Essay

In the 18th century, an amendment to the American constitution changed their lives. It prohibited alcoholic beverages consumption. This change affected traditional belief and social life. This led to the emergence of debate over the validation of the 18th-century amendment. Personal liberties and themes of patriotism was an idea of individuals in support of ban (dryers), and who were against the bill. The article, therefore, brings into clarity ways used by the dryers to create a victorious movement that led to the 18th bill approval

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In the American life history, liquor was a part of their daily lives despite the initial badly believe that it was a stimulant which was only given to manual laborers to cheer them up. As a matter of fact, in some parts of England, the bell rang at 11 A.M so that workers could take alcohol. Liquor was also used as medicine in ancient America. Prohibition of alcohol changed the culture and other people were against it. This paper takes a focus on the history of elites comprising of the dryers, and the ASL. The paper is portioned into chapters that look into the deep historiography of the events. It also discusses the validation process and compare the historians' difference in approach. It is also worth knowing that more than 15 sources are provided to maintain the high-level reliability of this work. The diverse nature of the prohibition era, therefore, calls for more than an individual historian. There is a conclusion based on the writer's mind regarding the occurrence of events and the methods of approach.

The history of the ban era can be divided into two distinct set of minds due to need for clarity. The two schools of thought are the political and theoretical approach. Szymanski, Kerr, and blocker Jr are some examples of political historians and they examine prohibition era from the political history point of view. They focused on newspapers and documents to explain how the activities of the league accelerated the 18th-century amendment. There are other theoretical historians such as Timberlake, Sinclair, and Rumbarger whose major concern was on the larger themes affecting the amendment. These themes include progressivism, conflict, and nativism.

Richard Hofstadter a Columbia University historian is a renowned writer on seminal narratives about the transition age. He provides deep analysis regarding the ban age in his book entitled Age of reforms, Hofstadter explains, the ban age can be credited to the great potentials of the society who were interested in abolishing social immorality. Changes in this are put on trial to remedy the political upheaval during that time. The progressive era also aimed at introducing a new era of moral righteousness. According to Hofstadter, prohibition was the result of the progressive era. It encouraged the dryers to condemn urban immorality brought about by drunkards. He argues that prohibition's aim was to change the social and economic atmospheres for the better. However, he also argues that prohibition era cannot be categorized as a progressive or conservative movement. Hofstadter also adds that prohibition era was hybrid progressive reforms and conservative fundamentals which belonged to the two political crusades.

Strangers in the land by John Hingham published in 1963 is a landmark work that focuses on the race of Americans and their immigration. The author quickly analyses the relationship between racism, nativism, and prohibition in the United States. He based his argument on the Great War saying that the amendment was a success due to this war. According to Hingham, the war generated complete Americanism. Strangers in the land also take a quick view on how the prohibition caused disorderly, race conflicts and lawlessness in the country in the 18th century. The biggest concern of this paper is to take a deep look into the different approaches between the historians. Hingham relates the validation of the 18th-century amendment to the wartime conformity. His approach is theoretical and broadly discusses nativism during the progressive era.

The tyranny of change is the work of historian Chambers. This book's focal length lies on urbanism, mass immigration, and industrialism during the progressive era. Whiteclay argues that the American progressive era emerged as a result of an increase in the number of immigrants, the growth of cities and resurfacing of powerful industrial cooperation. The reformers' aim was, therefore, to restore order to the world which was becoming unruly. The reformers, therefore, took advantage of prohibition and united in order to condemn their targets such as urban decay and liquor industries that caused havoc. According to Whiteclay, those who supported the bill combined both religious and economic theories to oversee the 18th bill. Through his entire work, Whiteclay looks at the significance of prohibition but does not satisfactorily explain how the prohibitionist used the war to influence the public to validate the prohibition. Chambers arguments are to some extent similar to Hosfdter's. They both argue that dryers cannot be simply classified as progressives. They say that prohibitionists were a combination of both urban conservatives and economic progressives.

Ellis W. Hawley, a 1979 historian bases his writing on the beginning of the end of the transition age. Hawley focuses on the relationship between WW1 and the progressive era. He looks into the political institutions but also borrows Chamber's idea of the Great War and the prohibition era. According to Hawley, the validation of the 18th amendment was accelerated by the Anti-German forces used by the dry advocates. His work, however, focuses much on how the prohibition failed in trying to restore order after its validation. Hawley also views the progressive era in three different points of thoughts. The first is the movement's birth, the second is the final validation of the act and the last play is the failure of the movement. Hawley focuses so much on the failures of the prohibition act and not its achievements.

Reform and regulation is the work of historian Lewis L. Gould (1986). Its focus is mostly directed to the elite political actor during the progressive era. He focuses on the response of democrats and republicans to the progressive era. He argues that the reformers who allied the Republicans were not supported by the party and hence lost their struggle thereafter which the progressive reformers finally got support from the democrats . Gould, however, does not put his concern on the prohibition issue and ignores it. Gould's argument lies on a baseless background since his party analysis of progressive era raises so many unanswered questions like whether both the parties were willing to support the elites.

The party period and the public policy; American politics is a historiographical Overview of McCormick that provides an insight into the age of transition. He contends that the transition era can be linked to the liberals whose intentions and thoughts were to remedy the havoc in industrialization using political legislation. He argues that the progressive era sparked off the activities of the Protestants. His argument presents a very different wave approach to the progressive era. This is of great importance because the formation of and leadership of progressives and dry organizations were similar to that described by McCormick.

Steven J. Diner (1998) in his work entitled A very different age, provides a different, and a unique approach to the progressive era. Different, from early historians, Diner looks at the people of that era but not as an institution or organizations. He provides insights on the impacts the progressive era had on the people, looking specifically at the immigrants, African Americans, rural Americans and the white collar workers. This work is very important because it presents people's reaction towards the progressive era. Diner argues that the rural Americans were the original leaders of the prohibition era. Diner's work, however, fails to add other different tools to support his work. It provides a crucial view on how people reacted differently to the progressive era. It is therefore important to treat Diner's work with such caution as it tends to bring a very different approach based on what we've seen in regards to the other historians. It is the difference in these approaches that give us a blurry insight on what might have caused, affected and brought the prohibition era to an end.

In his work, Gerstle substantiates the factor that led to the emergence of progressive era was a restriction on immigration and radicalized systems. He contends that the situation during the progressive era contributed to the validation of the 18th amendment. Gerstle uses a political approach of the progressive era which led to the growth of the federal government. The federal government was extensively used to monitor the drinking habits of the citizens. The federal government used nativism to justify its need to ratify the 18th amendment. This argument has been employed by many historians that we've looked at. Nativism was, therefore, an important weapon during the prohibition era.

Historian Glen Jeansonnel (2006), a time of paradox; America since 1890, gives an insight into the progressive era from its birth to collapse. He agrees with the argument of other historians such as Richard Hofstadter and Chamber that the progressive era was aimed at bringing an end to the industrial corruption and political upheaval. He also claims that discussing the progressive era comes along with such a difficulty. Jeansonnel argues that progressivism entailed other smaller movements with the same target and later led to the birth of other micro movements such as the WCTU who were against the suffering of women.

The progressive era has also been attached to the aspect of the working class scholarships. In his recently published article, John P. Enyeart (2003) recently published a very significant paper in which he tries to compare the different approaches during the progressive era. He concludes that there was an emergence of gradual socialists in the rocky mountain west who were in possession of the power within the labor advocacy. There has been also similar works of Jacob H Dorn (2003), who argues that Christians played an important role in the progressive era. He, however, contradicts the ideas of the conventional wisdom. He substantiates the close relationship between Christian reformers and Eugene Debs. Contrary to Enyeart, Dorn does not examine the relationship between the prohibition and labor.

Based on the historians' works that we have looked into, prohibition era was linked to progressive era. Prohibition was a success but a complex activity that managed to salvage the havoc in most parts of the world. The dryers hard to create a direct message in order to succeed in their target. The whole process involved patriotic sacrifice and strong campaigns that were aimed at restoring law and order.

The prohibition historiography can be divided into two distinct waves of history. The first wave focuses on the dry advocacy and their political strategies, while the second wave concentrates on the nativists' efforts on the 18th amendment. Some historians such as James Timberlake (1963) however had a traditional view on the prohibition. They based their argument on a sociocultural point of view while treating the ban in a social approach. There have been recent explanations based on economic theory and other advocacies such as ASL and KKK. All these are works credited to the efforts of historian K. Austin Kerr. Another historian, Blocker contends in his book Retreat from reform that the ban was a movement targeting those living in the middle social class supporting initial claims of Timberla...