Alcohol: Its Influence on American Lives Throughout the Ages

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Recommended: The introduction of prohibition

Long before the start of colonization in the New World, alcohol had played a significant part in peoples’ lives. Not only was it customary habit to drink on a regular and daily basis but alcohol generally was regarded as part of God’s creation, thus "inherently good." The colonies placed the foundation for the American legacy of alcohol consumption that was to be thoroughly moderated. Moderation was not merely religiously proclaimed but was regarded as task efficient and in relation to economic stability. Although drunkenness was not necessarily stigmatized, throughout the years, government officials began addressing alcohol abuse as a resurging and threatening societal issue. This became more so prominent when industrialization changed the input of work environments, the latter relying more and more on technological processes and on peoples’ capability to coordinate these. Moreover, because of technological developments, alcohol production increased and so did consumption due to availability and accessibility. Merely between a span of thirteen years, during 1900-1913, production of beer alone boosted from 4.6 billion to 7.6 billion liters. Gradually, "drunkenness would come to be defined as a threat to industrial efficiency and growth."
Various laws were passed therefore from as early as 1697 in order to instate officially control over alcohol consumption. It was thus because of an increase in alcohol abuse which was morally disregarded that state officials were motivated to enact laws in this respect. And it was as well because of increased concerns over peoples’ health and work abilities that enactments followed frequently. Laws in relation to alcohol prohibition were means by which the government sought to attain specific ...

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...d J. "National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S." Accessed November 16, 2013. http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1091124904.html#.UodkItLxrR8.
Murdock, Gilbert, Catherine. Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Powers, Madelon. "Decay From Within: The Inevitable Doom of the American Saloon." In Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History, edited by Susanna Barrows and Robin Room, 112-164. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, 1991.
Slavicek, Louise, Chipley. The Prohibition Era: Temperance in the United States. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2009.
Vance, Robert, Patrick. "The Demise of Prohibition." The Concord Review, Inc. 12 (2001): 97-116. Accessed November 16, 2013.
http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/EPrize_Prohibition.pdf.

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