| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4 | The History Cooperative

Gaines M. Foster. Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Pp. xiii, 318. Cloth $49.95, paper $19.95.
To contemporary Americans, the acronym "NRA" is unmistakable. It stands for the National Rifle Association, the country's largest and most powerful gun lobby. Proclaiming an inviolate "personal liberty" to bear arms, the NRA resists virtually every governmental effort—local, state, or national—to restrict individual gun ownership.	1
A century ago, however, "NRA" referred to a very different lobby: the National Reform Association. It coalesced in the 1870s around a campaign to amend the Constitution, demanding a new preamble that recognized the power of "Almighty God" and "the Lord Jesus Christ" in the affairs of men. After this effort foundered, the group widened its scope. From 1875 to 1920, and with varying degrees of success, the National Reform Association would seek federal restrictions or bans upon polygamy, divorce, prostitution, obscene material, prizefighting films, lottery tickets, narcotics, and alcohol. Unlike the present-day NRA, in short, the old NRA aimed to enhance the power of the American state—and to limit "personal liberty"—in the name of a single moral code.	. . .

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