Quote:
Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden
That aside, kids drinking is normal, from a historical perspective. in 19th century Canadian children were given rum for breakfasts. The high sugar content was a little like frosted flakes it was cheap energy for the morning. I think something like 20% of daily caloric intake at that time was liquor.
I mean it really puts into perspective the temperance movement that starts to 20th century.
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I used to scoff at the temperance movement and prohibition. The picture we get from pop culture is flappers and bon vivants being harassed in speakeasies by bible-thumpers.
But learning about what a terrible scourge alcohol was in the late 19th and early 20th century changed my perspective.
Lots of men in those days got hammered every day. We’re not talking about a beer or two now and then (beer was barely even considered alcohol). It was hard liquor, in volume, routinely.
And since this was before we had a social safety net, and were much poorer in general, the effect on the working class and poor was devastating. Many working men would cash their paycheques on Friday, head to a bar, drink a bottle of brown, and come home drunk out of their minds with a fraction of the pay that was supposed to feed their family for a week. If you ever read Angela’s Ashes, you can see how terrible that was for poor families. Children would literally starve to death because their fathers drank away their paycheques.
That’s why the temperance movement was driven by reforming, progressive women. It was above all a campaign to protect women and children from the folly of men.
Which doesn’t mean banning alcohol outright was good policy, or had much of a chance of success. But the motivations behind it weren’t as dumb as we’re led to believe.