Alcohol. A Social and Cultural History

Mack Holt9781845201654, 1-84520-165-5

This book examines our relationship with alcohol and examines how drink has evolved in its functions and uses from the late Middle Ages to the present day in the West. 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 a comprehensive history of the role of alcohol over the past five centuries.

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Table of contents :
Notes on Contributors……Page 8
Introduction……Page 12
Part I Morality and Health……Page 20
–1– To Your Health……Page 22
–2– Europe Divided……Page 36
–3– In the Public Sphere……Page 52
–4– In Vino Veritas……Page 72
–5– “Mon docteur le vin”……Page 88
Part II Sociability……Page 102
–6– Drinking and Alehouses in the Diary ofan English Mercer’s Apprentice, 1663–1674……Page 104
–7– Taverns and the Public Spherein the French Revolution……Page 118
–8– Drink, Sociability, and Social Classin France, 1789–1945……Page 132
–9– The Lore of the Brotherhood……Page 156
Part III State and Nation……Page 172
–10– “To the King o’er the Water”……Page 174
–11– Revenue and Revelry on Tap……Page 196
–12– Drinking “The Good Life”……Page 214
–13– Kaleidoscope in Motion……Page 236
Index……Page 252