Snake Oil and Coca-Cola: The Development of “the Great National Temperance Beverage”

This research project focuses on five major developments that were taking place in America from 1886 to 1917 that are both influenced and reflected the history of Coca-Cola. These five issues constitute individual case studies in which I examine how Coca-Cola was directly affected by the culture in which it was created: urbanization of America; changing loci of social exchange within American society; shifting patterns in commercialism and advertising; industrial production and technology; and temperance efforts and early prohibition movements. In the half century following the Civil War, the United States became an increasingly urban, busy, and noisy nation creating a loud yet anxious society. Commercialism and advertising which was a result from mass production of products, as did with a demand for better technology and production skills. Early temperance efforts from the south caused a demand for new outlets for much of society. In an era of “snake oil” salesman and unregulated drug production and marketing, Coca-Cola emerged from its “nerve tonic” roots to transform America as the nation’s first and foremost national and international consumer product brand