Ten Nights in a Bar-Room

Next to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ten Nights In A Bar-Room was the second most popular book of the mid-19th century. It captures the spirit of the Temperance movement which fought the uncontrolled abuse of alcohol in American society. It is a melodrama, written almost as a play, and would be easy to adapt for stage performance from this book. It was performed many times as a play in in the 19th century by traveling theater companies. It is an easy read and is both revealing and unintentionally humorous. For those interested in understanding the mind-set of our ancestors, this book is very useful as primary source material. It's values are those of the prim-and-proper class of people who felt themselves the mainstay of society. It's a fun read for history buffs and a great resource for period theater.