Historical Research Of American Prohibition Movement

In American history, there had experienced numerous social reforms in pursuing social justice and ideals, the Prohibition Movement was just one of them, which reflected the typical characteristics of Americanized social reform. The movement commenced at the beginning of the 19^th century, and finished in the 30s of the 20^th century, covering a period more than a century, all social classes were involved in it. The movement revealed a feature of long duration, large scale and profound influence. The passage of the 18^th Amendment marked the peak of the Prohibition Movement, since then the nation-wide prohibition initiated. Thirteen years later, the 21^st Amendment replaced the 18^th Amendment, the lasting Prohibition Movement punctuated a full stop, and the power of alcohol regulation was transferred from federal to state and local governments.It is well known that Americans are the people who have a strong inclination to adventure social reforms, the history of the United States is a history of pursuing democracy, freedom and individual happiness. The American Constitution clearly stipulated the holiness of human right which can not be violated, it is the foundation and principle for the establishment of the United States. However, it is in this very nation that the federal government ignored such cherished principle and practiced the ban of alcohol drinking, rudely intervened the private life and regulated the behavior of individuals by means of legislation, which aroused much meditations and curiosity. In fact, American prohibition revealed something much deeper than just the ban of alcohol itself, it was the reflection of various social conflicts of the time, prohibition was just a means through which different social groups aimed to fulfill their dreams and obtain an ideal society. The Movement was a necessary product during the period of great transition from a traditional society to a modern one. Therefore, the aim of prohibition study is to decode the complicated social conflicts of the period, to have an insight to the function and role of various social reforms in American society, so as to find some general rules of American social reform movements.The author lays emphasis on the reasons and motivations of the participants of the Movement, social problems in different prohibition stages, and the reactions of different social classes to alcohol issue.Chapter One is the general survey to the development of the Prohibition Movement, the status quo and significance of prohibition study. At the same time, the chapter states the theoretical basis, writing methods, research target, and sources of material of the dissertation paper. The aim is to let the readers have a panorama about the Movement so as to lay a foundation for better understanding of the following chapters.The focus of Chapter Two is on the religious reasons that impulsed the Prohibition Movement. In this movement, churches had been playing a critical role, especially in the first half of the movement, and the social problems that caused by drinking were always the great concern of different religious denominations. The main aim of Social Gospel Movement was to help the followers to abstain from the abusing of alcohol, relieve the pains of their family and drunkards themselves. By doing this, the protestant churches were determined to eradicate all social evils, and welcome the Advent and new millennium with a sober and pure society.Chapter Three concentrates on the social motivation of prohibition. The scientific and economical benefits of prohibition are the main objects of the study. Besides the obstruction to religious pursuit, American scientists and doctors gradually found that drinking also brought more harm to drinkers' health, and the corresponding scientific experiments had proved that, and the recognition of the public to the harm of drinking had improved. At the same time, manufacturers, labor unions, and physical labors began to reflect the negative impact of alcohol drinking on work efficiency, interest of labor unions and their families. The consensus was that prohibition of alcohol was the best way to improve efficiency, increase personal income, and strengthen the cohesion of labor unions.Chapter Four gives spotlight on saloon culture, saloons and social problems. During the Progressive era the number of saloons increased greatly, as a main component of city culture, saloons played a more and more important part in social lives of city dwellers, which became an ideal stage of entertainments and social communication to man. With the advent of beer age and boosting of saloon culture, saloon keepers and alcohol interest groups played booty, monopolized the alcohol industry, saloons gradually evolved into a place of hiding social dirties, which were regarded as a serious threat to American democratic system. Saloon, therefore, triggered tides of attacks from the public.Chapter Five is the politicalization of alcohol issue. The focus is on two importance prohibition organizations: Women's Christian Temperance Union and Anti-saloon League. They exaggerated the problems of saloons and made the alcohol issue a political matter. They aimed to ban the alcohol drinking by different means: the former through moral persuasion and the latter through legislation. Anti-saloon League represented the middle class with strong social responsibility, it obtained power from the protestant mentality, copied the running patterns of modern corporations, and imposed pressure on the parties. The similarity is that the two organizations strongly upheld prohibition by combining the religious elements and scientific methods in their prohibition campaigns, giving concerns to the happiness of drunkards and their families, apperceiving the relations between environment and social problems, taking good advantage of public against trust passion.Chapter Six analyzes the social conditions for the passage of prohibition amendment and evaluates the execution of prohibition. WWI triggered the great changes of political environment both home and abroad. American Congress passed the 18^th Amendment and Volstead prohibition bills in a hurry against this background. However, the loopholes of prohibition legislation itself and overlapping of powers in prohibition operation became a lethal blow to the movement. New problems incurred by prohibition led the prohibition to a dead corner.Chapter Seven expounds the great social changes and strong resistance to prohibition. During the 20s, the political, economical and cultural environment changed dramatically, which imposed a great challenge to national prohibition. On the one hand, those who strongly upheld state rights began to voice their accumulated rancor, at the same time, the abusing power behaviours of prohibition agents and violation of human right cases fueled this anger. On the other hand, industrialization gestated modern metropolitan culture, which triggered the overall liberation of mentality, behavior of young women, drinking and smoking became the symbols of independence and equal rights, the previous cemented women prohibition block began to break, and the prohibition movement lost its solid foundation.Chapter Eight discusses the passage of the 21^st amendment. The focus is on the attitudes of the two parties to the repeal and the anti-prohibition strategies of Woman's Organization for National Prohibition Reform. Al Smith and Pauline Sabin for the first time drew anti-prohibition issue into the channel of party politics, the former forced the two big parties to take sides on repeal issue, while the latter let the fence-riding politicians see the hope of repealing national prohibition, and the anti-prohibitionists got the upper hand in the politics. In the crucial moment, hesitating Franklin D. Roosevelt took side to surport repeal in order to win the presidency, and the coming Big Crisis finally knocked the mourning bell for the century long prohibition practice.The last part is Conclusion. The success and the failure of prohibition is not something unexpected, in fact, it was the result of big changes of social environment of America. Similar with other social reforms in American history, Prohibition practive was also featured with a strong taste of idealism, which was also the main reason that led to the decline of the Prohibition Movement. History has already told American people that restricting and regulating social morality and living habit of people by means of coercive legislation is just in vain, it would do nothing better but more social chaos and disasters.