No Saloon in the Valley: The Southern Strategy of Texas Prohibitions in the 1800s

In this engaging study, James D. Ivy recovers an intriguing and neglected aspect of Texas cultural history--the confluence of social strategies that fueled the Texas prohibition movement. In particular, Ivy contends that Texas prohibitionists developed a southern strategy that characterized prohibition as a reform movement with southern roots in Texas soil. These prohibitionists overtly distanced themselves from northern evangelical reformers that had championed abolition, religious radicalism, or feminism in order to appeal to male voters anxious about their role in post-Reconstruction southern society. While their strategy succeeded insofar as it was able to gain the support of a majority of white males with close ties to the former Confederacy, it failed to persuade a majority of Texas voters to embrace prohibition.

No Saloon in the Valley is a wise exploration of the prohibition movement at the grassroots. As a cultural and social historian, James Ivy is admirably sensitive to the tangled skein of religion, honor, race, gender, and regionalism that made up the Texas controversies over the liquor traffic. Finally we have a history in which Tejanos and African Americans are joined together with the 'short-haired women and long-haired men' of the prohibitionist crusade.

—Jeffrey P. Moran, University of Kansas

James D. Ivy's No Saloon in the Valley is more than simply a pathbreaking work on southern prohibition--and it is certainly that. Finely crafted, deeply researched, and engagingly written, this is the book to read on the ambivalent impulses behind the New South Reform.

—Michael Vorenberg, Brown University

James D. Ivy teaches history at San Antonio College and holds a Ph.D. in History of American Civilization from Harvard University.

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Southern Strategies

1. "The Lone Star State Surrenders to a Lone Woman": Frances Willard's 1882 Texas Tour

2. "The Voice of the People in the Voice of God": Local Option in McLennan County, 1885

3. "The Steady Step and Majestic Swing of the Hosts of Reform": The 1887 Campaign for Statewide Prohibition

4. "The Blood of the Mighty Dead Has Stained Me!": Eggs and Honor in the 1887 Campaign

5. "Who Brought this New Idea into Texas, Anyhow?": Texans Reject Prohibition

Coda: From a Regional to a National Reform

Notes

Index