The Drunkard S Progress

"Twelve-step" recovery programs for a wide variety of addictive behaviors have become tremendously popular in the 1990s. According to John W. Crowley, the origin of these movements—including Alcoholics Anonymous—lies in the Washingtonian Temperance Society, founded in Baltimore in the 1840s. In lectures, pamphlets, and books (most notably John B. Gough's Autobiography, published in 1845), recovering "drunkards" described their enslavement to and liberation from alcohol. Though widely circulated in their time, these influential temperance narratives have been largely forgotten. In Drunkard's Progress, Crowley presents a collection of revealing excerpts from these texts along with his own introductions. The tales, including "The Experience Meeting," from T. S. Arthur's Six Nights with the Washingtonians (1842), and the autobiographical Narrative of Charles T. Woodman, A Reformed Inebriate (1843), still speak with suprising force to the miseries of drunkenness and the joys of deliverance. Contemporary readers familiar with twelve-step programs, Crowley notes, will feel a shock of recognition as they relate to the experience, strength, and hope of these old-time—but nonetheless timely—narratives of addiction, despair, and recovery. "I arose, reached the door in safety, and, passing the entry, entered my own room and closed the door after me. To my amazement the chairs were engaged in chasing the tables round the room; to my eye the bed appeared to be stationary and neutral, and I resolved to make it my ally; I thought it would be safest to run, as by that means I should reach it sooner, but in the attempt I found myself instantly prostrate on the floor . . . How long I slept I know not; but when I awoke I was still on the floor, and alone . . . I have since been through all the heights, and depths, and labyrinths of misery; but never, no never, have I felt again the unutterable agony of that moment. I wept, I groaned, I actually tore my hair; I did every thing but the one thing that could have saved me."—from Confessions of a Female Inebriate, excerpted in Drunkard's Progress

Legendary Ukrainian poet and writer, Ivan Franko wrote a collection of stories in 1903. Currently a required reading material in the Ukrainian education system. Mr. Franko is considered an national icon and hero of Ukraine through his inspirational works over the incredible life he led in Ukraine to help embolden and underline the identity and strength of Ukraine. Get inspired and feel the emotions and stories written "What is Progress" by Mr. Ivan Franko. *This book was translated in 2021.

Guided by the latest scholarship in American literary studies, and deeply committed to inclusiveness, social responsibility, and rigorous contextualization, The Broadview Anthology of American Literature balances representation of widely agreed-upon major works with a thoroughgoing reassessment of the canon that emphasizes American literature’s diversity, variety, breadth, and connections with the rest of the Americas. This concise volume represents American literature from its pre-contact Indigenous beginnings through the Reconstruction period, offering a more streamlined alternative to the full two-volume set covering the same timespan. Highlights of Concise Volume 1: Beginnings to Reconstruction • Complete texts of Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; and Benito Cereno • In-depth thematic sections on such topics as “Rebellions and Revolutions,” “Print Culture and Popular Literature,” and “Expansion, Native American Expulsion, and Manifest Destiny” • More extensive coverage of Indigenous oral and visual literature and African American oral literature than in competing anthologies • Full author sections in the anthology are devoted to authors such as Anne Hutchinson, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Briton Hammon, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, José María Heredia, Black Hawk, and many others • Extensive online component offers well over a thousand pages of additional readings and other resources

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: Introduction The Drunkard by William Henry Smith was first staged at the Boston Museum in 1844 and shown 144 times within one year. Being a mass media, the theater reached a large audience and the drama was a great success. At the time the drama was staged, the temperance movement was at the peak of its popularity and success. Today the Boston Museum is regarded as the birthplace of American temperance drama. In 1850, when the play had already achieved national recognition, B. T. Barnum staged The Drunkard at the famous American Museum on lower Broadway. On October 7th 1850 the audience was able to watch the 100th consecutive performance of the play. “Barnum’s production of The Drunkard heralded the entry of temperance narratives into mainstream theatre and immediately became the standard against which all other temperance dramas were measured” (Frick 113). In this paper I will first present a short historical survey of the temperance movement. At a time when drinking alcohol was part of every day life and the negative consequences that resulted from alcohol abuse were severe and obvious, the goal of the temperance movement was to achieve a social reform in the long term. The aim was to put an end to moral decline, crime, poverty and diseases. Alcohol addicts should be persuaded to stop drinking and supported in their effort. They should sign the pledge and abstain from alcohol. The melodrama The Drunkard or The Fallen Saved is an excellent example of the way the theater was used as a means to present the social, moral and personal consequences of intemperance to the audience. The main focus of this paper will be on the criticism of alcohol abuse in The Drunkard. By close reading I will analyze how Edward Middleton’s and his family’s life changes due to the fact that Edward starts drinking too much alcohol and becomes an addict. But, as the title suggests, the drama also shows that alcohol addicts can be saved and rebuild their lives if they are strong enough and stop drinking. Thus, The Drunkard is a perfect example of the theatricalization of temperance propaganda. The theater was the ideal means to communicate the temperance message of abstinence, and the audience was entertained and received a moral lesson at the same time. The Drunkard was “by far the most prominent and influential [...], a play destined to become one of the most popular and best-known temperance dramas of all time” (Frick 113).