History of Alcohol in America

Abram’s book chronicles the “huge role” that alcohol has played in the Oval Office, even before there was an Oval Office. When fighting the British for independence, General George Washington solicited support from the French, writing to French generals to discuss their favorite wines. During the Civil War, another major turning point in America’s story, the Union Army was partially funded by two tax increases spurred by General Ulysses S. Grant, who became the most celebrated general of the War, and served two terms as President of the United States.

But even outside the White House, America’s alcohol story is an ever-evolving crossroads of religion, science, psychology, socioeconomics, and law and order. In America, alcohol exists simultaneously as a hallowed rite of passage into adulthood, a necessary evil, and a venerable institution of entrepreneurial freedom. Various attempts to end its production, control its distribution and market its profitability have defined entire eras and generations of the American psyche.

Ironically, such a perspective ran contrary to Rush’s own views on the subject; he felt that moderate consumption of alcohol, coupled with regulation (like the failed whiskey tax) and better treatment methods, would ensure that alcohol could be responsibly enjoyed. Nonetheless, the damage was done; by the late 1800s, fueled by the righteous fire of religious revivals that predicted the impending dawn of the 20th century would herald the end times, American citizens began turning away from their drinks, to the point of pledging complete abstinence.

The 1900s didn’t bring the end of the world, but it did give rise to groups like the Anti-Saloon League. The movement to close saloons was founded in 1893, but it was in the early 20th century that the group spearheaded the growing chorus of voices calling for an end to alcohol in America. Using lobbying and the print media, the Anti-Saloon League’s moral crusade to end the production, distribution, and consumption of alcohol enforced existing temperance laws, but also added new ones to the books. Churches were fully on board with the program, which led to politicians taking notice. In 1919, the tide was so strong that Congress ratified the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution, the culmination of the movement that came to be known as Prohibition, which went into effect the following year.

Prohibition, as the 18^th Amendment came to be known, had an immediate effect: a reduction in the rate of alcohol-related crime that seemed to validate the law, and the belief that it would usher in an enlightened golden age of morality, civil peace, and public health. However, the other effect of the ban was that it also created opportunities all over the country for organized crime rings to go into a new line of work. In Atlantic City, mobsters raucously celebrated the passage of the 18^th Amendment, knowing it virtually guaranteed them a stake in a very lucrative black market. In Florida, federal agents engaged in violent gunfights with bootleggers and smugglers, while local police and politicians were regular customers at smoky speakeasies.

Law enforcement’s uneasy relationship with Prohibition (the Orlando Sentinel refers to it as the “double standard”) also speaks to another

problem with the 18^th Amendment: Despite the support the ban received from the Anti-Saloon League and other groups in the temperance movement, it was almost universally unpopular among most Americans. Supporters of Prohibition promised that other industries would boom in the wake of alcohol being taken off the market; not only did this not come to pass, it spectacularly backfired.

Unable to make a profit without legal sales of liquor, theaters and restaurants lost revenue hand over fist. Breweries, saloons, and distilleries closed down, which led to a spiral of unemployment, as barrel makers, truck drivers, and waiters all found themselves without work.

Some people got creative. Since the 18^th Amendment permitted the sale of whiskey by prescription for medicinal purposes, the number of registered pharmacists in New York increased threefold. Similarly, the allowance for wine to be used in religious services saw an uptick in church and synagogue membership.

Even the American grape industry got in on the act, selling kits of juice concentrate with a warning that leaving the concentrate too long would cause the juice to ferment and turn into wine. People could easily purchase the equipment for making a home distillery from a hardware store, and public libraries offered manuals on distilling. The same law that was intended to make Americans stop drinking turned Americans into experts on creating alcohol.

However, one of the unexpected side effects of this creativity was that the quality of the alcohol was degraded by the use of cheap, rudimentary and dangerous chemicals and equipment. In the 13 years of Prohibition, an average of 1,000 Americans died every year from consuming tainted alcohol, which came to be known as “bathtub gin” as a sign of how people traded in health and safety for the luxury of enjoying an illicit drink.

Prohibition may have died an ignominious death, but America’s love-hate relationship with alcohol has continued to define many elements of what it means to be American, from the nominally illegal beer distilleries in the Appalachian mountains to the counties scattered across the Bible belt that are steadfastly (and proudly) dry.

When manufacturing alcohol was still illegal, many people resorted to cooking up barrels of booze under cover of darkness or “by the shine of the moon,” which gave rise to the term “moonshine.” The term is still used today to describe alcohol that is made and sold outside the law.

That way of life persists today. In 2014, NPR wrote that “making moonshine at home is on the rise.” The interest is partly fueled by the Discovery reality TV series Moonshiners, which depicts the daily life and adventures of a group of real-life moonshiners in the Appalachian Mountains, across the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia. While the series is dramatized – the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said that the program shows nothing illegal – the popularity speaks to the culture of snubbing law enforcement and celebrating the peculiar influence alcohol has had on this brand of Americana. One of the show’s stars was arrested in 2007 by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for illegally distilling liquor (and possessing a handgun as a convicted felon). He committed suicide before his jail term was to start, an action his daughter attributed to her father’s fierce devotion to the idea of independence – one that goes a long way in explaining why the culture of moonshine exists among the Appalachians.

Rice and Bread Magazine writes that making moonshine “is a way of life and part of [the] culture” for many people. In poor communities, where money is not easily made, the laws on alcohol meant little; regardless of constitutional Amendments, brewing whiskey is a family tradition.

Whether it is brewed in hidden distilleries in the countryside or served by the shot glass in a bar, alcohol is here to stay. When a Gallup poll found that over 66 percent of Americans consume alcohol, having as many as four drinks a week, the company wrote that the practice of drinking is “commonplace” in the United States. In 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek noted that spending on alcohol grew every quarter for the previous four years. And in 2011, Forbes notes that beer, wine, and liquor stores were growing at a rapid rate, likely due to consumer confidence returning after the Great Recession, calling 2011 “The Year of Alcohol.”

American culture has also changed in response to the flow of alcohol becoming ever stronger. The shrinking gender gap since the 1970s has seen more women assume positions of leadership and social parity with their male counterparts, even in terms of drinking. The Fix writes that there is now much less of a stigma over women drinking than there has ever been in the past.

Put another way, “American women are drinking more like men,” in the words of Newser. Historically, men always drank more than women, but the National Institute of Health writes that drinking patterns among women were closely aligning with those of men.

For better and for worse, alcohol is an intrinsic part of America. It played a role in the foundation of the New World, in the colonies’ fight for independence, and through some of the most tumultuous and celebratory moments in the history of the proverbial shining city on the hill. For many Americans, alcohol is a rite of passage to adulthood, especially on college campuses. For others, it is a social lubricant, a way to relax with friends and connect with romantic and sexual partners. And for too many, it is an escape from depression, stress, or trauma.

How the American people have responded to alcohol – either through a puritan shunning or with open arms (and an open wallet) – has defined so many different cultures and eras across the country. Whether it is throwing back a beer at a baseball game or brewing dangerously high proof whiskey in a shack in the mountains, the history of alcohol itself is, in some ways, the history of America.