I would highly recommend to you a short piece by Joel Bernard on the
continuity between Protestant traditions of fasting and the temperance
ethic: "From Fasting to Abstinence: The Origins of the American
Temperance Movement" in Susanna Barrows and Robin Room, Drinking Behavior
and Belief in Modern History, 1991, UC Press.  His account of the logic
behind abstaining from alcohol in some Protestant sects seems really
right to me. Laura Schmidt
 
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, David Fahey wrote:
 
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> >                     QUERY: Drinking and the Harvest
> >
> > Author: [log in to unmask]
> > Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 22:00:11 -0500
> >
> > Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 14:55:42 -0500 (EST)
> >  From: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >  Greetings All:
> >
> >  I am at work on a dissertation chapter that addresses Protestantism and
> >  agriculture in early America (1740-1820).  Much of my work deals with
> >  Quaker and Presbyterian middling farmers in the Middle Colonies. Part of
> >  one of my chapters focuses on how Protestant denominations and local
> >  churches and meetings sought to moderate the use of alcohol during the
> >  harvest season.
> >
> >  I am looking for studies that focus on the role that alcohol ("spiritous
> >  liquors" to the Quakers) played in the harvest season.  While my work
> >  focuses on the eighteenth and early nineteenth century American context, I
> >  would certainly be open to works that deal with later or earlier periods
> >  or non-American studies of this phenomenon.  How important was "strong
> >  drink" to the community, culture, and overall life of the harvest?
> >
> >  Thanks,
> >
> >  John Fea
> >  Department of History
> >  SUNY-Stony Brook
> >  Stony Brook, NY 11794
> >  [log in to unmask]
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>