Jack S. Blocker Jr. traces the Women's Temperance Crusade of 1873-74 from its origins in public lectures by health reformer Dio Lewis through its rapid spread across the nation, to its culmination in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. The non-violent tactics of the Crusaders are described, and their progression from meetings to marches and occasional political campaigning is explored, along with the responses, ranging from active support to violent opposition, that the Crusade evoked. An analysis of causation critically examines previous explanations for the Crusade's timing, location, and composition before concluding that a concurrent rise in alcohol consumption and a decline in liquor-law enforcement produced the movement. A discussion of relations between suffragists and Crusaders helps to clarify the place of the Crusade among nineteenth-century reform movements. The ways in which the movement ended reveal the Crusaders' determination to achieve their goals and the nature of their opposition. Finally, Blocker explores the effects of the Crusade upon male politics and drinking and upon women's organizing as an independent force for reform.

In recent decades, scholars have explored much of the history of mob violence in the American South, especially in the years after Reconstruction. However, the lynching violence that occurred in American regions outside the South, where hundreds of persons, including Hispanics, whites, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans died at the hands of lynch mobs, has received less attention. This collection of essays by prominent and rising scholars fills this gap by illuminating the factors that distinguished lynching in the West, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic. The volume adds to a more comprehensive history of American lynching and will be of interest to all readers interested in the history of violence across the varied regions of the United States. Contributors are Jack S. Blocker Jr., Brent M. S. Campney, William D. Carrigan, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Dennis B. Downey, Larry R. Gerlach, Kimberley Mangun, Helen McLure, Michael J. Pfeifer, Christopher Waldrep, Clive Webb, and Dena Lynn Winslow.