Select Temperance Tracts

American Tract SocietyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.2

Word count: 701K words
Chapters: 71

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Select Temperance Tracts by American Tract SocietyAuthor: American Tract Society,Language: English, Class: HV: Social sciences: Social pathology, Social and Public Welfare, Release Date: Nov 4, 2008

Editor's review

Select Temperance Tracts is a compilation of pamphlets published by the American Tract Society, classified under social pathology and social welfare in the social sciences, with themes centered on the nineteenth-century temperance movement in the English-speaking world. Its value lies not in literary quality but in its value as historical source material: such short exhortatory texts collectively present the rhetorical methods, argumentative structures, and dissemination strategies of the moral reform discourse of the time, and can serve as reference for users in social history, religious history, print culture, and propaganda studies. As a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to search and cite, making it suitable for textual analysis or classroom materials. It should be noted that such texts carry distinct period stances and exhortatory intent; readers should maintain a critical distance and treat them as samples of historical discourse rather than neutral social analysis. If you are interested in how social movements shaped public opinion through cheap reading matter, this pamphlet compilation offers a concrete and concentrated window for observation; if you are only looking for highly readable narrative works, you may find it repetitive and didactic.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers in history and sociology studying the nineteenth-century temperance movement and social reform discourse
Communication studies researchers interested in religious pamphlets, print culture, and propaganda rhetoric
Teachers who need public-domain English historical sources for textual analysis or classroom discussion
Advanced readers interested in Victorian moral discourse and public issues

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking a literary reading experience with plot and characterization
Readers who want modern medical or addiction science guidance
Readers sensitive to a religious exhortatory tone and prone to resistance

Reading tips

Read the editor's note or the first piece first to understand the purpose and intended readers of the pamphlets, then proceed to the individual pieces.
Tag each piece by theme, such as religious argument, family responsibility, and economic consequences, to facilitate comparison of rhetoric.
For each piece, record its core argument and persuasive techniques, building up a discourse analysis notebook.
Read it alongside other social reform texts of the same period to avoid accepting only one stance.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is this book mainly about?

It is a selection of temperance-themed pamphlets published by the American Tract Society, classified under social pathology and social welfare in the social sciences. Its content centers on persuading people to give up alcohol, with a religious and moral reform flavor, reflecting the temperance movement discourse of the nineteenth-century English-speaking world.

Is it suitable as a guide to quitting alcohol?

No. These texts are historical exhortatory pamphlets, not modern addiction medicine or psychological intervention guides, and their arguments are based on the religious and moral framework of the time. If you need practical help, you should seek professional medical and psychological support.

What should readers pay attention to?

Pay attention to the texts' propagandistic intent and period limitations. They aim to persuade rather than to analyze neutrally, and often use emotional examples and moral binary judgments. It is advisable to read them as samples of historical discourse, maintain a critical distance, and not treat their assertions as universal facts.

Why is it worth using for researchers?

Because such cheap pamphlets were precisely the concrete medium through which social movements shaped public opinion. They concentrate the display of argumentative structures, rhetorical strategies, and the positioning of intended readers, making them convenient for textual analysis, print culture research, or comparison with contemporary materials, and public-domain electronic texts are easy to search and cite.

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About the author

American Tract Society Author

The American Tract Society appears under a collective name as a publishing body. Public information is limited, making it difficult to confirm its specific founding background and organizational history; however, judging from the three works included in the collection, the society mainly compiled and published popular reading materials and moral edification texts. Its works cover personal growth and freedom, scenes and travel observations in Switzerland, and an anthology on temperance, showing attention to everyday ethics, regional travel writing, and social reform issues, in a plain and accessible style suited to general readers. Such publications played a role in spreading ideas and shaping reading tastes, and they also provide material for understanding the landscape of popular publishing of the time.