Final answer:
The temperance movement in the 1820s-1840s, influenced by the Second Great Awakening and concerns over urbanization and immigration, aimed to reduce alcohol consumption. Organizations like the WCTU and Anti-Saloon League achieved significant victories, leading to local prohibitions and the national Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 to ban alcohol.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Temperance Movement
During the 1820s-1840s, the temperance movement became one of the most widespread reform movements in the United States. Advocates of temperance sought to reduce or completely abstain from alcoholic beverages, citing the moral degeneration and social ills caused by alcohol consumption. This movement gained momentum from the Second Great Awakening, a series of religious revivals motivating individuals to live virtuous lives. Added to the spiritual reasons for temperance were social changes like urbanization and immigration, which many middle-class Americans associated with rising crime and poverty rates. Temperance movements influenced local laws, leading to the establishment of 'dry' towns and states, and eventually the prohibition of alcohol at the national level with the Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919.
Significant organizations such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League played crucial roles in promoting the temperance and prohibition movements. These groups linked the fight against alcohol to broader progressive reforms, targeting saloons and alcohol's detrimental effects on family life and workers. By 1906, they successfully influenced 40 percent of the nation's counties to prohibit alcohol, and by 1909, secured statewide prohibition in twelve states.