Gender and the American Temperance Movement of the Nineteenth Century

Download or read book Gender and the American Temperance Movement of the Nineteenth Century written by Holly Berkley Fletcher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-12-12 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the nineteenth century, the American temperance movement underwent a visible, gendered shift in its leadership as it evolved from a male-led movement to one dominated by the women. However, this transition of leadership masked the complexity and diversity of the temperance movement. Through an examination of the two icons of the movement -- the self-made man and the crusading woman -- Fletcher demonstrates the evolving meaning and context of temperance and gender. Temperance becomes a story of how the debate on racial and gender equality became submerged in service to a corporate, political enterprise and how men’s and women’s identities and functions were reconfigured in relationship to each other and within this shifting political and cultural landscape.