Nothing but good clean fun: alcohol culture and reform in upstate South Carolina, 1945-1972

Nearly all studies discussing alcohols relationship to religion in the South end either in the early twentieth century or shortly after the repeal of federal Prohibition in 1933. Using archival resources and oral interviews, this thesis pushes past the Prohibition era to discuss how the economic and social transformations of the post-WWII period created new divisions over alcohol. Focusing on upstate South Carolina, it first describes alcohol culture, a multi-classed, bi-gendered, bi-racial recreational culture that oriented itself in the 1950s and 1960s around drinking, dating, and dancing. It then shows how and why this culture created new sins in the eyes of evangelicals, causing reformers to counter with an alternative, alcohol-free culture and renewed attempts at bringing back prohibition via local option campaigns. Most importantly, it explains how the appeal of economic modernization trumped these attempts at reform but spurred evangelicals to continue fighting for nothing but good clean fun.