Final answer:
The Anti-Saloon League was founded in 1893 and quickly became the foremost advocate for the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. It played a pivotal role in the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, which established national prohibition in 1919, largely through its connections with the Social Gospel Movement and the sentiment of the time, particularly during World War I.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Anti-Saloon League and Its Role in Advocating for Prohibition
The Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893 as a local temperance society in Ohio, quickly became the leading prohibitionist organization in the country. Its primary aim was to advocate for the prohibition of alcohol. Throughout the early twentieth century, the League successfully lobbied for a host of local and state laws banning alcohol and was instrumental in the eventual ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment which established nationwide prohibition in 1919. The Anti-Saloon League's political influence was so significant that in many districts, particularly in the Protestant-dominated Bible Belt of the South and the Midwest, no candidate could win without the endorsement of local prohibition organizations.
Prohibition and the Anti-Saloon League's agenda was also closely linked with the Social Gospel Movement, which combined religious doctrine with social reform. This movement was especially supported by middle-class Protestant reformers who saw in alcohol a moral vice and a cause of domestic violence and worker inefficiency. The Anti-Saloon League's efforts, combined with those from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, eventually culminated in the widespread support of prohibition as a patriotic and moral cause, especially during World War I when anti-German sentiment reduced sympathy towards the largely German-descended brewing industry.
It is important to note that while the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, it did not ban the act of drinking per se. Enforcement proved challenging, leading to an illegal market for alcohol and ultimately the repeal of prohibition with the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933.