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of individual rights, which lacks macro study and in-depth discussion of thewhole history of the prohibition movement.
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Chapter One Religion

The success of the prohibition movement, with the final passage of the VolsteadAct as the hallmark, was the result of the interactions of a variety of influences andpowers. Compared to the newly emerged various cultural conflicts in the late 19thcentury, religious influences towards the temperance movement had been there forcenturies. From the moderate temperance ideas of Puritanism in colonial era, to thesocial evangelical movement, which attacked the evil tavern and the social problemsled by immoderate drinking, then to the final passage of the Volstead Act, religiousinfluences had been the inherent factor for the culmination of the prohibitionmovement.In this section of the study, the writer, from the perspective of religion, wouldstudy how the religious factor led to the final passage of American nation-wideprohibition in the 1920s.

1.1 Temperance and Puritanism
Puritanism has been regarded as the foundation and essence of American culture.Maybe, it’s a little bit exaggeration for us, nevertheless, there was no doubt that itconfirmed the profound influence of Puritanism on the American culture. “The impactof Christianity on people was unimaginable, especially on America, America is anopen country, but the combination with Christianity in America was kind ofperfect.......However, to one’s surprise, the American law and public opinion hadn’tbeen controlled by religion, while social outlook had been improved because ofreligion; religion brought harmony to the family and stability to the whole nation”,according to Tocqueville, “Tocqueville also believed that when the first crowds ofpuritans came to American soil, the destiny of America could be predicted” (Handy46).The American temperance movement had a long history, which could be tracedback to the colonial era, when a simple and austere life was extremely advocated,puritanism, became the core belief of most of people. And they thought that drinkingnot only wasted money and time, but caused varieties of social problems andinstability. What’s more, according to them, immoderate drinking represented a fall ofindividual morality, and caused a great menace of Christianity (Handy, Christian 49).Drunkenness risked heavenly retribution in the form of pestilence, famine, drought, orsome other misfortune and had been regarded as a “brutish sin”.
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1.2 Temperance and Social Evangelical Movement
Since the colonial time, a variety of denominations of Protestant Christianityhave been dominating American religion. During the Age of Reform, religion played akey role in motivating and emboldening temperance advocates and other reformers.This was especially true of the evangelical Christianity of the Second GreatAwakening, a series of Protestant revivals that swept the country during the early1800s. The crusading and profoundly optimistic Christianity of the Second GreatAwakening emphasized that believers had the power to transform their troubled nationinto the perfect godly community, a beacon of holiness in a dark and corrupt world.Inspired by the lofty principles of revivalism, temperance reformers devoted themselves to curing Americans of their “sinful” drinking habits as a first step towardbuilding the ideal Christian society (Slavicek 8).At the end of the