The Youth Temperance Movement

Kamenov, Nikolay

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-41644-7_5

Nikolay Kamenov²

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Abstract

One of the most successful branches in Bulgaria was the so-called youth temperance movement. Activists around the world realized early on the tremendous potential of temperance education and curriculum for the creation of future generations of abstainers. Furthermore, early indoctrination in the principles of temperance also promised a steady stream of new activists as well as the formation of a committed political base. These broader tendencies were further catalyzed in interwar Bulgaria by a more introverted project of development that initially enabled the political participation of youth. This chapter discusses the new activities and cultural production stemming from the youth temperance movement, for example, Nikola Vapcarov debut on the pages of Borba.

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Notes

1.
Spirtomrazec, 1927, 3:6, p. 3.
2.
I have chosen the concept of life cycle for the plurality of meanings it entails (see e.g. O’Rand, Angela M.; Krecker, Margaret L. (1990): Concepts of the life cycle: Their history, meanings, and uses in the social sciences. In Annual Review of Sociology 16 (1), pp. 241–262, on the ‘concepts’ of life cycle). Used broadly in sociology, anthropology and economics, the idea of life cycle is often ‘applied metaphorically or heuristically to initiate analyses of developmental or maturational phenomena across social domains from individuals to organizations’ (Ibid., p. 242). This chapter concentrates on such maturational aspects. Children active in the temperance movement grew sometimes to be abstainers or activists themselves. Further emphasis is put on developmental aspects in the history of the institutions. To these we also add, however, aspects of trans-generational affects as found in the concept of life cycle or, in other words, a reproduction of norms.
3.
See for example CSA, 1665 K, Историческа справка.
4.
Giles, Geoffrey J. (1991): Temperance before the temperance movements: some examples from eighteenth-century children’s literature in England and Germany. In History of Education 20 (4), pp. 295–305.
5.
Ibid., p. 300; we will return to the question of intermediality and visuals in detail in the last chapter of this book.
6.
Crowley, John William (1999): Introduction. In John William Crowley (Ed.): Drunkard’s progress. Narratives of addiction, despair, and recovery. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, pp. 1–28, here p. 3.
7.
See for example Mather, John Cotton [pseudonym] (1999): from Autobiography of a Reformed Drunkard (1845). In John William Crowley (Ed.): Drunkard’s progress. Narratives of addiction, despair, and recovery. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, pp. 97–110.
8.
Althusser, Louis (2008 [1971]): On ideology. London: Verso, particularly pp. 1–60.
9.
See for example Olsen, Stephanie (2014): Juvenile nation. Youth, emotions and the making of the modern British citizen, 1880–1914. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 21–49; see also Maynes, Mary Jo (2008): Age as a Category of Historical Analysis: History, Agency, and Narratives of Childhood. In The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 1 (1), pp. 114–124.
10.
Olsen, Juvenile, p. 17.
11.
Zimmerman, Jonathan (1992): “The Queen of the Lobby”: Mary Hunt, Scientific Temperance, and the Dilemma of Democratic Education in America, 1879–1906. In History of Education Quarterly 32 (1), pp. 1–30.
12.
Mezvinsky, Norton (1961): Scientific temperance instruction in the schools. In History of Education Quarterly 1 (1), pp. 48–56, here p. 50.
13.
Tyack, David B.; James, Thomas (1985): Moral Majorities and the School Curriculum: Historical Perspectives on the Legalization of Virtue. In Teachers College Record 86 (4), pp. 513–537, here p. 514.
14.
Zimmerman, Jonathan (1999): Distilling democracy. Alcohol education in America’s public schools, 1880–1925. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
15.
Ibid., p. 2 and pp. 117–41.
16.
Lamme, Margot Opdycke (2007): Alcoholic dogs and glory for all: The Anti-Saloon League and public relations, 1913. In The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 21 (2), pp. 138–159.
17.
Clarke, James (1909): Temperance Work in Bulgaria. Its Success. Samokov: Evangelical School Press, p. 3
18.
Ibid., p. 4
19.
Ibid.
20.
CSA, 1272K, au 2, p. 1.
21.
Ibid., p. 7.
22.
Sobriety, 1921, 3:1, p. 3.
23.
Sober Education, 1935, 12:4–5, pp. 88–96.
24.
Ibid., p. 89.
25.
Ibid., p. 91.
26.
Ibid., 3:1, pp. 1–3. Most contemporary documents refer to this as Въздържателно обучение or Въздържателно образование (temperance teaching or education respectively).
27.
Ibid., 1934, 12:1, pp. 21–3; Ibid., 1934, 12:2, p. 44; Ibid., 1935, 13:1–2, p. 5.
28.
Ibid., 1927, 5:3, p. 1.
29.
Mircheva, Gergana (2007): ‘Училищна хигиена’ в България от началото на ХХ век: културни образи, институционални роли и практики. School Hygiene in Bulgaria at the Beginning of the 20th century: Cultural Images, Institutional Roles and Practices. In Sociological Problems (Социологически проблеми) (3–4), pp. 238–265.
30.
Sober Education, 1927, 5:3, p. 1.
31.
See for example the reprint of the circular N. 1097 from 05.09.1934 in Sobriety, 1934, 17:2, p. 25 and p. 45; See also circulars from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Internal Affairs from January and March 1938 in Sobriety, 1938, 20:5, p. 137.
32.
For example circular 32,059 of 28.11.1927 of the Ministry of Education, see the title page of Sober Education, 1927, 5:8, p. 1.
33.
Sobriety, 1933, 15:6, p. 123.
34.
Cook, Sharon Anne (1993): Educating For Temperance: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and Ontario Children, 1880–1916. In Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation, pp. 251–277, particularly pp. 257–9.
35.
Ibid. p. 263.
36.
Sheehan, Nancy M. (1984): The WCTU and educational strategies on the Canadian Prairie. In History of Education Quarterly 24 (1), pp. 101–119, here p. 108.
37.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis (1973): The Band of Hope movement: respectable recreation for working-class children. In Victorian Studies 17 (1), pp. 49–74, here p. 51.
38.
Ibid.
39.
McAllister, Annemarie (2012): Public Engagement with Visual Historical Resources: The 2012 “Temperance and the Working Class” Project. In Visual Resources 28 (4), pp. 376–383.
40.
CSA, 1027 K, au. 1, p. 15, handwritten.
41.
Locke Family Papers, MHC, box 3. The last strophe reads in Bulgarian: [Царъ Ракия, наший врагъ/Ще довършим ний до кракъ.]
42.
CSA 1027 K, au. 1, p. 30, handwritten.
43.
Trezvache, 1936, 13:1, p. 15.
44.
Cherrington , Ernest H. (1925–1930): Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem. Volume 2. Westerville, Ohio: American Issue Publishing Company, pp. 789–90.
45.
Clarke, Temperance, p. 7.
46.
CSA 1272 K, au 2, p. 10.
47.
Ibid., p. 11
48.
Ibid., p. 40; see also the correspondence between Dimchev and Forel in chapter two.
49.
Mircheva, Училищна, pp. 17–8.
50.
For a comparison of youth movements see for example Cupers 2008 for a discussion of the US and German cases in the interwar period.
51.
Mircheva, Gergana (2007): Физичeското възпитание в българските училища (1879–1912). Към заздравяване на колективното тяло. In Критика и хуманизъм (24), pp. 9–20, here pp. 17–8.
52.
CSA 1272 K, au 2, p. 50.
53.
Sheehan, The WCTU, p. 110.
54.
For a dissenting view see Schrad, Mark Lawrence (2010): The political power of bad ideas. Networks, institutions, and the global prohibition wave. New York: Oxford University Press.
55.
Eisenbach-Stangl, Irmgard (2004): From Temperence Movements to State Action. An Historical View of the Alcohol Question in Industrialised Countries. In Richard Müller, Harald Klingemann (Eds.): From Science to Action? 100 Years Later - Alcohol Policies Revisited. Dordrecht: Springer Science, pp. 59–69.
56.
CSA 1664K, Историческа справка.
57.
CSA 1674K, Историческа справка.
58.
CSA 1675K, Историческа справка.
59.
CSA 1665K, Историческа справка.
60.
Vuzdurzhatelche, 1928, 2:1, p. 4.
61.
See Borba, 1926, special, pre-congressional issue.
62.
Borba, 1926, 5:2, p. 8 and Ibid., 1926, 5:3, p. 12 respectively.
63.
Ibid., 1926, 5:3, p. 12.
64.
See for example Karaslavov’s The Death of the Drunkard in Ibid., 1925, 4:3, p. 7.
65.
Konstantinov, Aleko (1895 [1896]): Druzhestvo ‘Vuzdurzhanie’ [Дружество Въздуржание, Temperance Society]. Published originally in the Юбилеен сборник на сухиндолското читалище “Трезвеност” 1870–1895. Musina: Selyanin. Available online at http://www.slovo.bg/showwork.php3?AuID=169&WorkID=4690&Level=2
66.
Frick, John W. (2003): Theatre, culture and temperance reform in nineteenth-century America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–17.
67.
Spirtomrazec, 1927, 3:9–10, p. 7.
68.
Frame, Murray (2006): School for citizens. Theatre and civil society in Imperial Russia. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
69.
See for example Sobriety, 1922, 4:8, pp. 14–5.
70.
Spirtomrazec, 1927, 4:3, pp. 2–3.
71.
Ibid., p. 3.
72.
See for example the play Victim of the Demon penned by Peter Iliev-Slivenski in Vuzdurzhatel, 1926, 12:10, pp. 153–9. The author, born in 1881, joined as a teenager a protestant temperance group. A footnote to the play explains that it was sold out and due to the great demand to stage it in various villages already in ‘this season’, it was re-published on the pages of the periodical.
73.
Sober education, 1935/6, 13:3, p. 4 [bold in original].
74.
Ibid., 1928, V:12, p. 3.
75.
Sobriety, 1934, 16:4, pp. 80–1 [italic in original].
76.
Sobriety, 1922, 4:5–6, pp. 24–6, here p. 26.

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Nikolay Kamenov

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Kamenov, N. (2020). The Youth Temperance Movement. In: Global Temperance and the Balkans. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41644-7_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41644-7_5
Published: 25 June 2020
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41643-0
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