Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History

by Mack P. Holt

Overview

Why are we so ambivalent about alcohol? Are we torn between our love of a drink and the need to restrict, or even prohibit, alcohol? How did saloon culture arise in the United States? Why did wine become such a ubiquitous part of French culture? Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History examines these questions and many more as it considers how drink has evolved in its functions and uses from the late Middle Ages to the present day in the West. Alcohol has long played an important role in societies throughout history, and understanding its consumption can reveal a great deal about a culture. This book discusses a range of issues, including domestic versus recreational use, the history of alcoholism, and the relationship between alcohol and violence, religion, sexuality, and medicine. It looks at how certain forms of alcohol speak about class, gender and place. Drawing on examples from Europe, North America and Australia, this book provides an overview of the many roles alcohol has played over the past five centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845201661
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	03/01/2006
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Mack Holt is Professor of History at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Part I: Alcohol in Early Modern Europe, ca. 1500-1800 * The Art of Drinking in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe—Ken Albala * Europe Divided: Wine and Beer in the Reformation—Mack P. Holt * Drinking and Alehouses in the Diary of an English Mercer's Apprentice, 1663-1674—A. Lynn Martin * To the King o'er the Water: Scotland and Claret, c. 1660-1763—Charles Cameron Ludington * Taverns and the Public Sphere in the French Revolution—Thomas Brennan * Part II: Alcohol in Modern Europe, 1800 to the Present * Drink, Sociability and Class in France, 1789-1945—W. Scott Haine * Mon docteur le vin: Wine and Health in France, 1900-1950—Kim Mulholland * History of Alcohol with a Splash of Water—Rod Phillips * A Social History of the Russian Tavern (Kabak)—Patricia Herlihy * In Vino Veritas: The Construction of Alcoholic Disease in Liberal Italy, 1880-1914—Paul A. Garfinkel * Part III: Alcohol in the New World * Drinking in the United States: A Kaleidoscope in Motion, 1600-2000—Jack S. Blocker, Jr. * Tippling Philosophers: Taverns, Drink, and the Expansion of the Public Sphere in Southern New England, 1740-1820—David W. Conroy * The Lore of the Brotherhood: Continiuty and Change in Urban American Saloon Culture, 1870-1920—Madelon M. Powers * Drinking the Good Life: Australia c.1880-1980—Diane Kirkby