ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the 1960s revolts threatened the boundary markers between the classes in America and, hence, that the New Temperance is, in many respects, a reassertion of the ideology of middle-class respectability. The New Temperance is also in part a middle-class reaction to its severest economic setback in American history. The middle class faces the dilemma is how to socially reproduce itself as a class. For many years, probably for most of American history, "respectability" was successfully constructed along the lines of native, white, middle-class behavioral norms. The chapter describes the radical attack by some baby boomers. It also describes number of conditions of American life, particularly for the middle class but also increasingly for what is left of the working class, dictate a certain amount of self-control and deferred gratification both to prepare and qualify for certain work and to continue to reproduce a certain level of income and status.
