Crusade Against Drink In Victorian England

Drink, 'the curse of Britain', was sweeping the land, or so it seemed to many Englishmen in the early decades of the nineteenth century. They held it responsible for crime, poverty and many other ills of the rapidly industrializing towns. A 'moderation' temperance reform organized in 1829 largely under middle class auspices soon gave way to a radical commitment to total abstinence in a great variety of worker self-help groups. When these too failed to change the drinking habits of most Englishmen the temperance movement sought new alliances. In the 1870s and 1880s Gospel Temperance married temperance to revivalist religion. It received the support of both established and non-conformist churches, and millions 'took the pledge'. But many did not; and as religious enthusiasm faded the anti-drink forces shifted their attention to the political arena. After successfully pressuring the Liberal Party to adopt limited prohibition, they mounted a great but unsuccessful campaign in the 1895 election. With this defeat the anti-drink crusade disintegrated, leaving the dedicated teetotallers socially isolated in the safe haven of their drink-free subculture.

Looks at choruses not only as a source of music, but as organizations that come together for aesthetic, social, political, and religious purposes. This volume discusses groups, including an East African chorus; groups from 19th century England, Germany, and America; early twentieth-century Russian Menonites; Soviet workers' clubs; and more.

This new edition of a pioneering work, first published in 1971, studies the impact of industrialization on drinking habits and attitudes toward drink in England. The book had a major impact on writing about nineteenth-century social history, and continues today to be a much-used resource. This revised edition includes new material and assesses research done since 1971. It also features a fresh introduction which examines the book's place in the understanding of Victorian social history.

"One of the lesser known aspects of industrialization in nineteenth-century England is its impact on people's drinking habits and on their attitudes to drink. This pioneering study analyzes the role of drink in England between 1815 and 1872 and investigates the motives and methods of the reformers who tried to combat the widespread drunkenness prevalent at that time..." - Book jacket.

By studying the temperance societies that flourished in late Victorian and Edwardian England, this book opens a window through which we can view middle-class and working-class society. Such societies provided the backbone for temperance both as a social movement and a political lobby. Most temperance societies became aligned with the Liberal Party in support of prohibition by Local Veto. A few allowed members to drink, but most were committed to total abstinence. There were organizations of middle-class men, of workingmen and their wives, of women, and of children and youth. The largest adult society was affiliated with the Church of England, but most societies were identified with Nonconformist denominations.

'A significant scholarly work. Its continuous assessment of different theories of social movement formation, its unique contentions concerning the mechanisms by which groups become politically mobilized, and its insightful comparative analysis make this an important study'.- C.Smidt, Calvin College '...a helpful contribution to the continuing debate on the nature of evangelicalism and its relationship to political action.' - Richard Turnbull, Church of England Newspaper This book examines the factors that have contributed to evangelical Christian politics in the United States and Great Britain in the past two centuries. Through a careful analysis of the temperance and abortion movements, the book shows how evangelical religious beliefs and cultural values led believers in America and Britain to form political protest groups. The book also assesses the outcome of evangelical politics by showing how political institutions unique to each nation shaped the social expression of religious values.

This book focuses on British efforts to suppress the traffic in female slaves destined for Egyptian harems during the late-nineteenth century. It considers this campaign in relation to gender debates in England, and examines the ways in which the assumptions and dominant imperialist discourses of these abolitionists were challenged by the newly-established Muslim communities in England, as well as by English people who converted to or were sympathetic with Islam.

This book is about alcoholic drink, political parties, and pressure groups. From the 1870s into the 1920s, excessive drinking by urban workers frightened the major political parties. They all wanted to reduce the number of public houses. It was not easy to find a way that would satisfy temperance reformers, many of them prohibitionists, and the licensed drink trade. Brewers demanded compensation when pubs were closed, but temperance reformers were vehemently opposed to this. The book highlights a prolonged struggle of vested interests and ideologies in this regard, showing that a Royal Commission in 1899 helped break the stalemate. In a controversial deal, brewers got compensation, but they had to pay for closing some of their own pubs. Later, during the First World War, the government experimented with an alternative to closing public houses, disinterested or non-commercial management, and considered State Purchase of the entire drink trade.