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One hundred twenty years ago, the Independent Order of Good Templars was the world's largest, most militant, and most evangelical organization hostile to alcoholic drink. Standing in the forefront of the international temperance movement, it was recognized worldwide as a potent social and moral force. Temperance and Racism restores the Templars, now an almost forgotten footnote in American and British social history, to a position of prominence within the temperance movement. The group's ideology of universal membership made it unique among fraternal organizations in the late nineteenth century and led to pioneering efforts on behalf of equal rights for women. Its policy toward African Ameri...
By studying the temperance societies that flourished in late Victorian and Edwardian England, this book opens a window through which we can view middle-class and working-class society. Such societies provided the backbone for temperance both as a social movement and a political lobby. Most temperance societies became aligned with the Liberal Party in support of prohibition by Local Veto. A few allowed members to drink, but most were committed to total abstinence. There were organizations of middle-class men, of workingmen and their wives, of women, and of children and youth. The largest adult society was affiliated with the Church of England, but most societies were identified with Nonconformist denominations.