A Study Of American Taverns From The End Of The 19th Century To The 1930s

From the end of the civil war to the 1930 s,with the rapid development of industrialization,the United States entered a period of rapid urbanization,which resulted in a series of urban social problems.As one of the typical urban public Spaces,tavern is the place where urban social problems are most concentrated due to its publicity and openness.Simultaneously,it is also one of the places that can reflect the American social presence comprehensively.In this paper,we will focus on the taverns under the different social backgrounds and legal norms during the two periods of time from the end of the 19 th century to the 1930 s,which was divided by the promulgation of the eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.We will also demonstrate the changes and different characteristics of taverns in terms of spatial furnishings,modes of business operation,social status,and social roles played.In the meanwhile,we will also reveal the close connection between the reservation or abolishment of taverns and various social movements around the taverns organized by tavernkeepers,proletariats,immigrants,the blacks and women in the pursuit of political rights and economic interests.Since the beginning of the 18 th century,there had been plenty of calls for prohibition of alcohol in the USA.Before the Civil War,it was popular that prohibition organizations adopted religious preaching and moral persuasion as the main measures,such as the Washington Temperance Society(WTS),the American Temperance Union(ATU)and so on.However,during the Civil War,the abolition of slavery became the core issue of reformers,so the anti-alcohol campaign temporarily "died down".After the Civil War,with the rapid development of agricultural and industrial economy,the brewing industry and taverns flourished again,accompanied by the long-term antitavern activities which started with the establishment of the Prohibition Party.Before the prohibition was enacted,tavern keepers,German and Irish immigrants and the black citizens carried out political activities in the taverns,causing a greater anti-tavern wave,while Bartenders tried to regulate the operation of taverns to quell the dissenting voices.Seeing the terrible corruption and violent incidents in the taverns,the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Ohio Anti-Saloon League adopted ways of struggling that different from previous organizations.Concurrently,American states with the right of local self-determination implemented the legislation and reform of taverns.All these had shown the different attitudes and methods of different groups in the American society on the issue of preservation and abolishment of taverns during this special period.After the promulgation of the prohibition,the rampancy of underground taverns,the continuous expansion of drinking consumers and demands of more and more citizens for restoring the legitimacy of the tavern,all those phenomena further demonstrated the enormous influence of civic activities on the taverns.Last but not least,by comparing the different business status of taverns before and after the prohibition,it illustrated that in the process of national urban construction,it was inappropriate to directly determine the survival of a certain industry only by issuing general prohibition laws.