Temperance & Prohibition Movement

From its beginnings in the 1820s through its demise in the 1930s, the temperance movement and its descendant, the Prohibition movement, had a tremendous impact on American politics. Temperance and Prohibition helped to both create and disrupt the Second Party System that existed roughly from 1828 to 1854, and proved a staple (and difficult) issue of party politics during the Gilded Age.

The temperance movement brought women into politics before they had the vote. During the Progressive Era, the Prohibition movement created the first single-issue pressure group, a model of influencing politics that was widely imitated. Prohibition also created the only constitutional amendment directly aimed at the personal habits of the people. National Prohibition presented challenges to the political order. After repeal of the amendment, temperance and Prohibition faded as issues. The birth of neoprohibitionism at the end of the twentieth century sidestepped federal politics as it pressured states into raising the legal drinking age and enforcing harsher laws against drunk driving.

Read the rest of the story on CREDO Prohibition and Temperance (login with your COM account for off campus access).