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.