"Betwixt brewings": a history of college students and alcohol

286 Pages·2016·4.84 MB·English

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Summer 2011
"Betwixt brewings": a history of college students
and alcohol
Michael Stephen Hevel
University of Iowa
Copyright 2011 Michael Stephen Hevel
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1146
Recommended Citation
Hevel, Michael Stephen. ""Betwixt brewings": a history of college students and alcohol." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis,
University of Iowa, 2011.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.4efyczjq
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theEducational Administration and Supervision Commons
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“BETWIXT BREWINGS”:
A HISTORY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS AND ALCOHOL, 1820-1933
by
Michael Stephen Hevel

An Abstract
Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
July 2011
Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Christine A. Ogren
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ABSTRACT
This dissertation offers a history of white college students’ relationship with alcohol
between 1820 and 1933. These years frame a long crisis regarding alcohol in the United
States. A dramatic rise in alcohol consumption began around 1800, the negative
consequences of which led growing numbers of Americans, for the first time, to associate
social evils with alcohol use. These initial realizations gave rise to the temperance reform
movement that ebbed and flowed over the next hundred years, reaching the pinnacle of its
success in 1920, when national Prohibition became law. During this long century, college
students’ alcohol use often served as microcosm of developments within society.
Making contributions to the historiography of higher education, historiography of
alcohol, and modern research on college student drinking, this study relies primarily on
three types of sources that provide different perspectives on both students’ behaviors and
concerns about drinking on campus. Based on a large collection of student diaries,
chapters one and two consider college students’ alcohol use in the forty years preceding the
U.S. Civil War. Chapter one considers the behavioral patterns and significance of college
men’s drinking; chapter two focuses primarily on the influence of the temperance reform
movement on college students. Chapter three considers depictions of student drinking in
twenty-two “college novels”—works of fiction set predominantly on campuses with students
as their protagonists—published between 1869 and 1933. Finally, chapter four draws on the
surviving administrative records at four institutions to consider the effects on campus
discipline of national Prohibition.
Across the nation’s long century of conflict over alcohol, four themes emerge
regarding college student drinking. First, drinking behaviors and attitudes toward alcohol
on campus have long reflected those in the larger society. College students’ alcohol use has
generally mirrored that of adults in the segments of society from which they hailed or those
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whose ranks they wished to join upon graduation. The second theme is that the negative
consequences of college student drinking have been ever-present and widespread. College
students’ alcohol use has resulted in personal negative health effects, interfered with their
academic success, and coincided with vandalism and violence. Closely related to the
negative consequences student drinkers inflicted upon themselves and their communities,
college students’ alcohol use has long presented problems to college authorities. These
academic leaders primarily addressed alcohol-related misbehavior through the campus
discipline process. Although college authorities enjoyed seemingly absolute discretion in
terms of campus discipline, they seldom punished student drinkers harshly. Finally,
drinking on campus has long been a mark of privilege. During all the years of this study,
the heaviest and most regular alcohol use occurred at the institutions that enrolled the
most privileged students, primarily eastern men’s colleges. Within both elite and less
prestigious institutions, wealthy white men consumed more alcohol than their less
economically advantaged peers. By studying college students’ alcohol use in relation to
societal developments over a long century, the chapters that follow offer a largely untold
story of student life and provide important perspective on our contemporary concerns.

Abstract Approved: __________________________________________
Thesis Supervisor
_________________________________________
Title and Department
_________________________________________
Date
“BETWIXT BREWINGS”:
A HISTORY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS AND ALCOHOL, 1820-1933
by
Michael Stephen Hevel
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
1
July 2011
Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Christine A. Ogren
Copyright by
MICHAEL STEPHEN HEVEL
2011
All Rights Reserved
2
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
_______________________
PH.D. THESIS
_______________
This is to certify that the Ph. D. thesis of
Michael Stephen Hevel
has been approved by the Examining Committee
for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies at the July 2011
graduation.
Thesis Committee: __________________________________
Christine A. Ogren, Thesis Supervisor
__________________________________
Linda K. Kerber
__________________________________
Ernest T. Pascarella
__________________________________
Dorothy M. Persson
__________________________________
Katrina M. Sanders
To Lane and my mom, who both enjoy a cold beer,
and to my dad, who would love to join them.
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And for their wanting beer, betwixt brewings, a week or a half together, I am sorry that it
was so at any time, and should tremble to have it so, were it in my hands to do again.

Mistress Eaton’s testimony before the Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court
September 1639
Quoted in Samuel Eliot Morrison’s The Founding of Harvard College
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During her service as First Lady of the United States in the 1990s, Hillary Clinton
received criticism from some conservatives when she argued that “it takes a village”—rather
than just two parents—to raise a child. How embarrassing for me, then, that the support
necessary to write this dissertation seems to have required the resources of a medium-sized
city. In the twenty-six years of my life that passed before I arrived at the University of Iowa,
I gained friends, colleagues, and mentors who helped prepare me for and sustain me
through my doctoral education and the dissertation process. Since a fateful day in March
1993, Theresa (Drumm) Biggs has been a great best friend. Our lives took different, but
always connected, paths after high school. I am grateful for her continued friendship and,
now, her haircuts. At the University of Kansas, Danny Kaiser, Robert Page, Kenneth
Stoner, Diana Robertson, and especially Randy Timm exposed me to the possibility of a
career in higher education. Faculty members at Bowling Green State University, especially
Maureen Wilson, Mike Coomes, Carney Strange, and Ellen Broido mentored and, to a
large extent, put up with a particularly young and overly confident master’s student. I also
met three comrades at BGSU, Chad Argotsinger, Nicole Craven, and Kurt Foriska, who
made my two years in Ohio incredibly fun and continue to bring me good cheer in the
years after our graduation. Chad also played host, chauffer, and tour guide during my
dissertation research visits to the American Antiquarian Society and Smith College.
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As my time in Ohio came to a close, I accepted a job at Willamette University in
Salem, Oregon that took me far away from my midwestern homeland. Vonnie Martin
welcomed me to Oregon and, in many ways, served as a surrogate mother during my three
years there. Hans Bernard, Ryan Hamacheck, Bernie Liang, and Michael Ross made my
professional transition to Willamette smooth while also becoming close friends. Komo
Bains, Daniel Borgen, Kody Leonard, Robert Smith, and Doug Windedahl ensured I had
an active social life while I lived in Oregon, not to mention when I visit the Pacific
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