Distilling Democracy

This book explores the history of drug and alcohol education in public schools and its roots in the social movement of Scientific Temperance Instruction. The program, championed by Mary Hanchett Hunt and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, sparked conflict between expert and popular authority in the debate over alcohol education. The author argues that the real issue was the struggle to reconcile democracy and expertise, offering fresh insight into an overlooked chapter in our history and raising questions about lay influence on school curricula in modern America.