Chula Vista

My mind is always open to information of all kinds.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Janszoon

How was it the driving force behind prohibition?

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

The Batlord

I'll answer this tomorrow, cause I'm about to pass out, but prohibition was all about urban v. rural, protestant v. catholic, and immigrant v. non-immigrant. Alcohol was just the flashpoint that the rural, protestant, small town Americans used as a smoke screen to be prejudiced. Very much like now.

Not to mention it was also about the Industrial Revolution's effects on small town America.

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Neapolitan

Now you're starting to sound like Soulflower. Just cause a person doesn't agree with dichotomy you believe in doesn't make them ignorant.

If you don't know that people from rural American can move to the "big" city than you are ignorant about "big" cities. If you don't know that people who "have money" move out of the city than you are just ignorant of suburbs. Notice I didn't say "you're just ignorant." like you did. I'm just pointing out you are not knowledgeable about those areas.

You have no evidence that Moon-shining stopped in the rural South (during Prohib). So if people in the rural South enjoyed a bit of the drink as much as those did in big cities how can you come to the conclusion it was rural versus urban?

There are several reasons behind the Prohibition. Some claim it was due to the work of Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Despite the name of the organization, I don't think it really has to do with how all women or how all Christians think or act. It has more to do with Puritanical views, and how people hold those views want to impose thier opinion (notice I didn't say morality) on other people.

Another reason was anti-German sentiment because WWI. So a bunch of people in America thought since German-Americans enjoy beer so lets target German-American and ban beer in revenge for starting WWI. This is true and an indisputable fact, I heard this opinion expressed on the History Channel.

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The Batlord

I was drunk and apparently belligerent. Leave me to my hang over.

Thank you for that bit of pointless nonsense.

And these temperance movements (and there was a balls' load of them) were generally Protestant movements led by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

Annie Wittenmyer (first president of the WCTU, a Methodist from Adams County, Ohio)

Frances Willard (second president of the WCTU, a Methodist from Churchville, NY)

Notice how they were both Methodists, cause the WCTU was a Methodist organization. And also that they hailed from small town, rural areas of the country.

Yeah, German's were one Protestant group of immigrants that had a drinking culture, but many of the immigrants from the Industrial Revolution were Catholic (Irish, Italian, and Eastern Europeans), unlike the predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant population of the country until then. Also, anti-immigrant sentiments were along way back in the 1800s, and did not begin just cause of WWI.

Much of the WASPs making up traditional America were also rural and devoutly religious, with strong views on alcohol. Whereas the immigrant population was either non-Protestant or at least not of the same mind on drinking, moving to cities which were fast becoming the new population centers of the country.

Around this time was also when distilling alcohol (as opposed to simply brewing) came around and allowed for much more potent alcohol than ever before. Just throwing that in there.

These new immigrants set up countless bars and saloons in these cities that were also centers of social interaction and political life. Many bar owners also became political leaders who would hand out political favors to bar patrons who agreed to support them, meaning that political power in cities was often disproportionately tied to organizations based around these bars and saloons. And since city dwellers were fast outnumbering rural citizens, political power was shifting from traditional Americans (WASPs) and being distributing amongst a diverse population of immigrants and non-Protestants.

Small town Anglo-Saxon Protestants responded to the changing demographics and culture of the country and a loss of political power by lashing out at these immigrants, and since they couldn't really gain traction with an explicit platform of prejudice and intolerance, they used alcohol as a rallying point, as it was a high profile similarity between many of the immigrants, and a difference between them and the traditional Americans. Much like the abolition or containment of slavery became a front for political power struggles between the rural South and industrial North.

So, Prohibition was really all about a conflict between old and new Americans.

This is a pretty informative and fascinating documentary on the roots of Prohibition. Highly recommended, but there's also a fair amount of information in the link itself.

Prohibition: Roots of Prohibition | PBS

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Chula Vista

All you need to do is google:

urban rural prohibition

And you'll get a bunch of links that explain it in depth.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Key

I would never insult anybody like this, not even Batlord. That's cold.