Laura Donahue
Proposal
The Prohibition Era in the United States between 1920 and 1933 was a very difficult and
confusing time for society, the economy, and politics. There are many reasons why Prohibition
was enacted as well as revoked, but this research focuses more on societal changes. The research
looks at the evidence of trends of family dynamics from pre-Prohibition throughout Prohibition
and comparing the two. Looking at the alcoholic trends in families during these times will help
prove that the 18th amendment did not create a stable family environment as was its intentions,
but it really created more problems within the family dynamic. Evidence provided supports the
fact that family life was less stable during the Prohibition Era compared to pre-Prohibition.
Harry S. Warner’s An Evolution in Understanding of the Problem of Alcohol is a good
resource for the counter-argument. Warner was the General Secretary and Treasurer of the
Intercollegiate Prohibition Association (IPA) during the early 20th century. He also campaigned
with the Prohibitionist Party try to get John G. Woolley into the White House. Although his
accounts were published in 1966, and is not a primary source, it is still good to have an
understanding of what was going on during the Temperance Movement as well as what he did
during Prohibition. There is a good counter-argument within the text describing the positive
societal changes Prohibition has to offer. Although the resource is a chronology of what the IPA
did, it is useful in the fact that it is a memoir that occurred during Prohibition in the United
States.
An essay written in Pittman’s Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns Reexamined uses
actual data to help prove that drinking in families is harmful. There are tests done and research
accounted for that can show the difference between ‘wet families’ and ‘dry families’ in
Laura Donahue
scientifically objective environments. There are no specific tests that occur during the
Prohibition period in this text, just general tests involving family dynamics and interaction. This
source cannot prove drinking increased during the Prohibition, but it can show the effects of
excess drinking versus no drinking in a family unit. Other sources must be used to defend that
there was increased drinking during that time such as Andrew Barr’s Drink: A Social History and
Kenneth D. Rose’s American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition.
Another resource is Andrew Barr’s Drink: A Social History of America. Barr discusses
many reasons how the family was affected by Prohibition. Barr explains the difference between
drinking pre-Prohibition and drinking during Prohibition as far as what people drank, how fast
they did it, and what time of the day drinking occurred. There are mother’s perspectives on
alcohol in the family during Prohibition, which enhances the argument because it describes
Prohibition affecting the children in a negative way. There is one specific idea that is useful that
identifies with the intention of the research. The idea is that Prohibition had the opposite affect of
what it was intended to do in the first place, which was to help broken families.
Linda Gordon’s Heroes of Their Own Lives: The Politics and History of Family
Violence--Boston, 1880-1960 describes the influence of the Prohibition on children. This is an
important point because children have always been influenced in some way by the habits of their
parents. This resource defends the argument that Prohibition did not help the family dynamic and
created violence and disorder. Gordon goes into detail about the insufficiency of the introduction
of the 18th Amendment on the violence problem. This resource shows a different side of the
argument, getting at it from the perspective of the violence in America rather than the history of
drinking in America. It gives the argument more of a rounded structure and shows that the case
is not one-dimensional but can incorporate many types of historical research.
Laura Donahue
The research so far is coming together in pieces from multiple sources. The most
concerning thing is that all of the hard facts and information are coming from many different
places and there hasn’t been one particularly solid source. Research is always continuous so
there may be a change later in the process incorporating one main text. Proving Prohibition
contributed to family dysfunction and violence is controversial seeing as there are many counterarguments. Although that means that proving this argument takes more time to express, all of the
research already done has enough evidence to back up this thesis. It is an all-around better case
than simply agreeing that Prohibition stalled family disorder and violence.
Laura Donahue
Bibliography
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1999.
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