Book Description
Throughout its existence the National German-American Alliance was not only an important cultural institution in the German-American community but also one of the principal organized opponents, ethnic or otherwise, to those organizations in the state agitating for the control or prohibition of liquor. It is hard to conceive of any history of the political struggles over prohibition and temperance legislation of the time ignoring the efforts of the Alliance in opposition to such legislation. Yet it is surprising how little has been written on the National German-American Alliance and its state and local affiliates. There have been a number of books and articles on either the national organization or one or the other of its local branches. But few of those studies have analyzed closely the significance of the anti-prohibition activism of the Alliance in the minds of its members and supporters and in the minds of its opponents. For many German-Americans the anti-prohibition agitation of the Alliance was the principal justification for its existence. Another purpose of this book is to describe the Weltanschauung of the Alliance leadership and its reaction to the pressures of assimilation, as it endeavored to meet the challenge of preserving German culture in an ethnic community rapidly being assimilated.
