The Fall and Rise of Puritanical Policy in America

Like the Prohibition generation of the 1920s, Americans today seem unaware of their long history of experimention with prohibition. From the sumptuary legislation of the Puritans, through the Whiskey Rebellion and Progressive Era, to the current war on drugs, America has experienced the cycle of prohibition and reform along an historical trend towards increased central government control. At the core of this puritanical crusade is the attempt to eliminate “sin” through government coercion and to shore up individual free will by eliminating difficult choices.2 The American Revolution restored private and local control over goods such as alcohol and tobacco, but since the period of the Early Republic, the prohibitionist agenda has, with few deviations, continued on this trend of increasing central control. Numerous studies have amply demonstrated that prohibition is a public policy failure and that prohibitions have consistently failed to achieve their public-interest goals.3 This investigation of the ideological foundations and