By the early nineteenth century, the movement against the use and distribution of alcohol was seeing a huge surge in popularity in the United States. Through speeches, stories, poems, plays, paintings, and parades, anti-alcohol organisations and activists railed against the dangers of drink, arguing that the continued use of alcohol would lead to the not-so-gradual downfall of individuals and families – even of the known world. The present volume explores this era in American activist history. It specifically charts how US anti-alcohol sentiment of the period engaged with real-world spaces and circumstances. An analytical focus on space reveals that temperance – far from being simply religiously or spiritually motivated – dealt seriously with apparent contemporary circumstances. This engagement with the real world in part lent temperance its appeal: abstinence from alcohol would improve manifold spaces that mattered to contemporaries, including the nation, the capitalist marketplace, as well as each individual’s body.weiterlesen