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E-book
Author Meyer, Sabine N., 1979- author.

Title We are what we drink : the temperance battle in Minnesota / Sabine N. Meyer
Published Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2015]
©2015

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. "Westward the Jug of Empire": The Emergence of a Temperance Movement in Minnesota (1819-1865); 2. Organizing into Blocs: The Fight for or against Personal Liberty (1866-1887); 3. "Talking against a Stonewall": The High License Consensus (1888-1897); 4. "Putting on the Lid": The Anti-Saloon League and Its Impact on the Dry Movement (1898-1915); 5. Equating Temperance with Patriotism: The Great War and the Liquor Question (1916-1919); Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary "Sabine N. Meyer eschews the generalities of other temperance histories to provide a close-grained story about the connections between alcohol consumption and identity in the upper Midwest. Meyer examines the ever-shifting ways that ethnicity, gender, class, religion, and place interacted with each other during the long temperance battle in Minnesota. Her deconstruction of Irish and German ethnic positioning with respect to temperance activism provides a rare interethnic history of the movement. At the same time, she shows how women engaged in temperance work as a way to form public identities and reforges the largely neglected, yet vital link between female temperance and suffrage activism. Relatedly, Meyer reflects on the continuities and changes between how the movement functioned to construct identity in the heartland versus the movement's more often studied roles in the East. She also gives a nuanced portrait of the culture clash between a comparatively reform-minded Minneapolis and dynamic anti-temperance forces in whiskey-soaked St. Paul--forces supported by government, community, and business institutions heavily invested in keeping the city wet."-- Provided by publisher
"Focusing on the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, this project examines the ways in which the involvement of Irish and German immigrants and women in the temperance movement helped to shape their categories of identity and establish positions within society. Sabine Meyer intertwines national, regional, and urban history during the Progressive era, along with the political motivations and legislative actions at the city and state level in Minnesota, to reveal the temperance movement's relationships and interactions with identity constructions and social, ethnic, racial, and political elements. By focusing closely on a Midwestern locale, Meyer is able to reflect on the continuities and changes between how the temperance movement functioned to construct identity in the heartland versus the movement's more often studied roles in the East"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Minnesota -- History
SUBJECT Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Minnesota fast
Subject Temperance -- Minnesota -- History -- 19th century
Temperance -- Minnesota -- History -- 20th century
Woman's Temperance Crusade, 1873-1874.
Women social reformers -- Minnesota -- History
Women immigrants -- Political activity -- Minnesota -- History
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Women's Studies.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Emigration & Immigration.
HISTORY -- United States -- 20th century.
PHILOSOPHY -- Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
Temperance
Women social reformers
Minnesota
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780252097409
0252097408