Jessica

= Beare US History Research Wiki Journal Prompts = = =


 * Journal Entry 1:** Topic and ideas -- What are you investigating? What are the questions that are guiding your investigation.

My paper is on the involvement of woman of in the Temperance Movement/ Prohibition, their influence on it and its influence on them. At the time woman were a very separate group of society, they were not involved with the men at all, not even with their husbands. As a group woman had many issues regarding their standing in society. Their lives were ruled primarily by men who inhibited them from doing things they wanted to and prevented them from having equal rights. This kind of inequality took place domestically and in outside the home.

Unfortunately what women often wanted were things that lead to the decline of men’s power so that they could achieve their own. For this reason men were not supportive of the groups women set up or their efforts to change things, for example, when women wanted the right to vote or work in higher paid jobs. Temperance, however, was a cause for which they had much male support. The problem of alcohol abuse affected society as a whole and for this reason for the first time woman had an opportunity to make a difference. In this way, using the movement of temperance, woman could achieve positions of power through leadership roles and alike. Not only was their aiding the movement aiding society but it was helping them gain freedom and rights.

These thoughts have brought up question like; did women make a bigger contribution than men did to the Temperance Movement? To what extent did women’s involvement change/effect prohibition? Would woman have achieved sovereignty without the problem of Prohibition and the opportunity for leadership it left in its wake? Was it the ideal of Prohibition or women’s desire for equality that made them fight? Then more generally regarding Prohibition and less regarding the women, did Prohibition improve America? Was Prohibition the best way to deal with alcohol abuse? What was the place of boot-leggers in society? Is it the governments place to deny its citizens liquor? Should drinking be something which is regulated by the government or should it be an individual’s choice?

I plan to incorporate the influence of Prohibition on society as a whole in conjunction with its effect on women as I believe this is necessary for the purposes of context. Without knowing what Prohibition did to America at the time, it is impossible to investigate the effect of Prohibition on them. The two are too closely link for the former to be ignored in this paper.


 * Journal Entry 2:** A comment on your process to date, a brief discussion of your sources, and a listing of sources you are currently working with (correct Turabian format). This should be a significant step forward from your initial bibliography.

I have found that sources that didn’t appear to be useful initially proved to be more useful than ones that did. I started by looking for books about temperance and prohibition which proved to say little about woman’s involvement in the cause. However woman suffrage books and books on woman’s rights as a whole gave information on how they were involved in the movement. The Concise History of Woman Suffrage has been particularly useful as it is full of primary sources in the form of speeches. It has passages about the relationship between woman suffrage and temperance which is just what I am looking for. Woman and Temperance I have found too broad and too dense to be a useful source although there is some valuable information. So far I have found most of the relevant quotes from my source that I wish to use and am integrating them into my writing. I have most of my information down and am now working on refining and polishing it.

References Altman, Linda Jacobs,. //The decade that roared : America during prohibition//. New York: Twenty-First Century Books, 1997. ———. //The decade that roared : America during prohibition//. New York: Twenty-First Century Books, 1997. Blocker, Jack S. //American temperance movements : Cycles of reform//. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989. Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson,. //Woman and temperance : The quest for power and liberty, 1873-1900//. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. ———. //Woman and temperance : The quest for power and liberty, 1873-1900//. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. Brinkley, Alan. //American history : A survey//. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Buhle, Paul, Mari Jo Buhle, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. //The concise history of woman suffrage : Selections from the classic work of stanton, anthony, gage, and harper//. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. Clark, Norman H. //Deliver us from evil : An interpretation of american prohibition//. New York: Norton, 1976. Daniels, W. H.,. //The temperance reform and its great reformers.// New York; Cincinnati: Nelson & Phillips; Hitchcock & Walden, 1878. ———. //The temperance reform and its great reformers.// New York; Cincinnati: Nelson & Phillips; Hitchcock & Walden, 1878. DuBois, Ellen Carol,. //Feminism and suffrage : The emergence of an independent women's movement in america, 1848-1869//. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978. Fahey, David M. and Thomas R. Pegram. Review of battling demon rum: The struggle for a dry america, 1800-1933. //The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science// 571, 2000). Hendricks, J. Edwin, Mark Edward Lender, and James Kirby Martin. Review of drinking in america: A history. //Journal of the Early Republic// 3, no. 41983). : 482-483. ———. Review of drinking in america: A history. //Journal of the Early Republic// 3, no. 41983). : 482-483. Lender, Mark E., and James Kirby Martin . //Drinking in america : A history//. New York; London: Free Press ; Collier Macmillan, 1987. Lucas, Eileen and United States. //The eighteenth and twenty-first amendments : Alcohol, prohibition, and repeal//. Springfield, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 1998. Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. //Domesticating drink : Women, men, and alcohol in america, 1870-1940//. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Pegram, Thomas R.,. //Battling demon rum : The struggle for a dry america, 1800-1933//. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1998. Tyrrell, Ian R. //Sobering up : From temperance to prohibition in antebellum america, 1800-1860//. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979. Willard, Frances E. //Woman and temperance; or, the work and workers of the woman's christian temperance union.// New York: Arno Press, 1972.


 * Journal Entry 3:** What is your Thesis?

The Temperance movement was an anti drinking movement which took place in America from the early 1800s to the late 1900s. During this time, much social and political change took place and thus ideas regarding alcohol’s use and abuse changed drastically. Part of that change included how woman in society were viewed. Their role in society morphed from the days when they were strictly confined to the home and busied themselves with child rearing and domestic chores only, to a time when they moved into the work place. Because of this, they gained power and recognition in a way they had never before. Although their new found status gave them a voice, their involvement in temperance gave them a platform from which to speak their minds and express their beliefs. Not only did they speak on the issue of alcohol, but they used the opportunity to talk about woman’s rights and their suffrage in general. ‘Woman were the main force, if not the leadership, in campaigns for temperance’ (pg 4 the Concise History of Woman Suffrage), this fact meant that not only did they have a voice but that they were in control of it. For the first time they were not second to men in the organizing and planning of events, this gave them the opportunity to improve their leadership and planning skills, attributes that would prove to be essential in their struggle for ultimate equality and freedom. ‘Temperance agitation provided an arena for women’s political self-assertion. Long the numerical majority in temperance societies, women had always been relegated to secondary roles. By the 1850s, woman’s rights advocates pointed to women as the true victims of alcohol,’ and that ‘only the victim, woman’s rights leaders argued, could understand the full necessity for the reforms. Therefore only a temperance movement guided by woman could achieve the domestic tranquility idealized by the society’ (pg 11 The Concise History of Woman Suffrage). So besides their being in control of the movement they were more passionate about the issue of temperance than men were as they were the most effected by alcohol abuse. The combination of power and passion lead to a movement that was strong in its aims and effective in its endeavors. For this reason, woman did as much for the advancement of the temperance reforms as temperance did for the advancement of woman’s suffrage. Woman’s desire for a place in society gave their involvement in temperance fervor and the underlying morals of temperance suited the goals of woman’s suffrage. In this way, the relationship between temperance and woman’s suffrage was a mutually beneficial one.