American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform by Jack S. Blocker, Jr., Dry Diplomacy: The United States, Great Britain, and Prohibition by Lawrence Spinelli (review)

398 Shorter Book Reviews In its strategic distortion, Grace suggests, Neo-Expressionism interrogates and exposes the conditions of life and art as critique and, consequently, may be viewed as a Post-Modernism that challenges institutionalized Modernism, rather than as a conservative return to the past. The most significant contribution of Apocalypse and Regression will be in the challenge it lays so forcefully upon the reader to re-examine the categories and boundaries of twentieth-century literary history, especially the framing of literary Modernism. Barbara Godard Department of English York University Jack S. Blocker, Jr., American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Refonn. Boston: Twayne, 1989.xvi+ 199pp. Lawrence Spinelli, Dry Diplomacy: The United States, Great Britain, and Prohibition. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1989. xviii + 181 pp. For many people, the only story of Prohibition is the one symbolized by a grim Eliot Ness, gun in hand and Fedora on head, grilling bootleggers about the location of their brewery. (Enpassant, one always wonders why he found it so difficult to track down breweries. Didn't he have a nose?) The violence and counter-violence of Prohibition is certainly an interesting story, but the obsession with it masks a dozen stories even more fascinating. With its origins in a temperance movement that flourished all over the English-speaking world and beyond, American Prohibitionism was one of humankind's great attempts to seize control of its future. It carried within it implications not merely for sum ptuary regulation but for a controlled adaptation to social needs in a rapidly-changing world. Accordingly, however much its defeat may have gratified the thirsty, that defeat was also a setback for a society's ability to plan its own destiny. There are stories to be told of the long campaign to win Prohibition, of those who successfully worked to undermine it, of the curious alliances that were formed on each side, of the social movements spawned by Prohibitionism, and of the resurfacing of Prohibitionist thought today among those who dismiss it as a misguided crusade against alcohol but who apply its principles in their war against other drugs. The offerings of Blocker and Spinelli indicate that there are many more stories to Prohibition than Eliot Ness ever dreamed of. Shorter Book Reviews 399 American Temperance Movements is an excellent introduction to Prohibitionism for the general reader, but it still manages to provide fresh insights for the specialist. Blocker provides a very detailed survey of the origins of temperance sentiment, of its changes over the years to Prohibitionism and, sometimes, back to temperance, and of the stimulus it provided for such movements as feminism. What he shows is that there was not one movement, but many variants, all interweaving and evolving in a variety of historical settings. As well, Blocker shows that the movement did not end with the repeal of Prohibition. It lives today in such groups as Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as in government programmes and medical research. Blocker begins each phase of his study with an illustrative anecdote. Beyond these anecdotes, however, the writing sometimes becomes a little dense because the book is packed with information and interpretation enough for a set of volumes. Indeed, given the comprehensiveness of this study, it seems a little odd that Blocker makes no mention of the obvious parallels between the anti-alcohol movements and the anti-drug and antitobacco movements. However, these are minor criticisms of a remarkable combination of compactness, comprehensiveness and analysis. Prohibition also made itself felt in the diplomatic world, particularly in relations between the United States on the one hand and Britain and Canada on the other. Some areas of diplomatic conflict are obvious. Scottish distillers, for example, annoyed American officials with their eagerness to supply American bootleggers. Similarly, Canadian distillers found their long border with the U.S. so porous that they established a market for Canadian rye which has never been lost. But there were also less obvious problem spots. American passenger shipping lines, for example, were eager to capture North Atlantic trade, but found themselves at a hopeless disadvantage against British competitors who could offer the pleasures of well-stocked bars. This led to a series of negotiations that, by comparison, make...