the act and philosophy, as self-described by its followers, of moderation or abstinence from alcohol. Temperance left the private realm and became a powerful political movement in several countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The movement began in the United States, where an abstinence pledge had been introduced by churches as early as 1800. However, the earliest temperance organizations seem to have been founded at Saratoga, New York, in 1808 and in Massachusetts in 1813. Its roots are founded deep in the American psyche of the time and historical puritanism. They believed God’s challenge should be a spur to undertake social and political reform. With missionary fervor they set about their task—to save America from the slavery of the “demon rum.”

Carrie Nation (1846–1911). A heroine to the temperance movement, Kentucky-born Nation vandalized bars and saloons, often using a hatchet for maximum effect. american photographer, 20th century/private collection/the stapleton collection/the bridgeman art library international

Thanks essentially to campaigning sermons by many preachers, some 6,000 local temperance groups in many states were up and running by the 1830s. By 1836, the American Temperance Society had become an abstinence society, and ideas about problems associated with drinking had begun to change—in the minds of temperance campaigners, alcohol was becoming the root of all evil. Temperance had become the stalking horse for Prohibition, which eventually took hold in the United States in 1920 and lasted until 1933.

In the mid-1800s, burgeoned by the ease by which people and messages could now travel large distances relatively quickly, temperance movements also became popular in the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and spread as far as Africa and South America.

In 1835, the British Association for the Promotion of Temperance was formed. In its early days the movement, as in the United States, was not anti-beer; in fact there was a belief that the consumption of beer, as opposed to spirits, was not harmful. But during the 1840s the issue became highly politicized. The National Temperance Federation was formed in 1884 and became closely associated with the Liberal Party, whereas the Conservative Party tended to support the interests of brewers, publicans, and other drinks producers. Temperance supporters started to campaign for teetotalism and greater control over where and when alcohol could be sold. Beer consumption was on the rise and the temperance movement blamed this on the availability of drink in over 100,000 public houses in Britain. In 1869 the government was persuaded to put the issuing of licences into the hands of local magistrates. This was a move with unintended consequences because it led to brewers beginning to buy pubs so they could maintain guaranteed outlets for their beers. This resulted in the tied house system still practiced in the UK today. See tied house system.

With the advent of World War I, temperance campaigners called for severe restrictions on the hours on which public houses could be open, in an effort to support the war effort by trying to stop munitions workers drinking. This led to the Defence of the Realm Act, which in October 1915 stopped pubs opening in the afternoon or late at night. It took more than 70 years of campaigning before pubs could open again at these times.

In the United States, the temperance movement is now widely referred to as “neo-prohibitionism” and remains a powerful force. Hundreds of “dry” counties from Kentucky to Alaska still completely prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages, and as of 2010, 14 states continued to enforce antiquated “blue” laws that prohibit sales of alcoholic beverages on Sundays.