American perceptions of alcoholism are surveyed from the colonial period to the 20th century. During the 17th and most of the 18th centuries, it was assumed that drunkenness was a matter of individual choice, that it was neither a disease nor a compulsive condition. At the end of the 18th century, some Americans began talking about drunkenness as an addiction and a progressive disease, i.e., an involuntary condition beyond the control of the drinker. Dr. Benjamin Rush was the 1st to articulate this view, arguing that alcohol itself was the addicting agent. Rush''s views gained credence with temperance advocates throughout the early 19th century, and the addiction view of alcoholism became entrenched in the ideology of the temperance movement before the Civil War. An important aspect of this view was that the only way to prevent or cure drunkenness was total abstinence. Belief in the addiction model often put the temperance movement at odds with many Americans who still believed in the individualist, preaddiction view of drunkenness, which remained strong well into the 20th century. The disease conception of alcoholism dates from at least the end of the 18th century, and was championed by the American temperance movement.