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jmberry84
jmberry84
Student
Community / Jr. College

How did progressives and immigrants differ in their feelings about saloons?

U.S. History

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Posted by jmberry84 on Monday August 10, 2009 at 3:50 PM and tagged with history, immigrants, progressives, saloons, u.s. history.

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  1. pohnpei397 Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    The short answer is that immigrants were in favor of saloons and progressives were opposed to them.

    Most of the immigrants during this time (1900-1920 or so) were working class or poorer.  They also tended to come from cultures where drinking was seen as an acceptable social behavior.  Once in the US, they tended to go to saloons after work because it was part of their culture and because they had hard jobs and felt the need to socialize after working hours.

    Progressives were mainly middle-class, native-born Americans.  They felt that the immigrants and the poor needed to be reformed so that they would be more like the Progressives themselves.  They believed that drinking was one of the habits of the immigrants that kept them from moving up the socioeconomic ladder.  For this reason, they opposed drinking in general, and saloons in particular.

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    Posted by pohnpei397 on Sunday October 4, 2009 at 8:00 PM