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> The reason why they made it illegal was mostly anti-immigrant racism. The temperance movement was global in scale and existed independently of racist and nat
by mjbxyz 6y ago
> The reason why they made it illegal was mostly anti-immigrant racism.
The temperance movement was global in scale and existed independently of racist and nativist political factions. That’s not to say that those groups didn’t overlap at times, but the reality was much more complicated than you present. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement for more background.
- iguy 6y agoThere was also a strong connection to the woman's suffrage movement. Since support for temperance skewed female, one of the main consequential arguments about extending the vote was precisely whether it would lead to prohibition.
- watwut 6y agoThe alcoholism was big thing for them due to link to domestic violence, violence in general and male breadwinner drinking out whole pay check (or being unable to keep job) having big consequences on whole family. Also, for long time, it was accepted to drink in work, leading to injuries with serious consequences. Contemporary society is much better regarding all those, so we kind of forget how ugly things often were.
- iguy 6y agoSure, I agree. The temperance / prohibition movement wasn't made up of crazy people who just wanted to ban good clean fun between consenting adults. The problems they saw & wished to fix were very real. I'm just surprised how seldom this connection gets mentioned. It seems that, having repealed prohibition and decided that it didn't work, we to place it in the "bad things" column, and are very happy to tie it to other bad things (like the mafia). While suffrage of course lives in the "good things" column. But forcing things into black & white doesn't help us see clearly, and the reality of temperance / prohibition was much more complicated.