Alcohol: A History

655 Pages·2014·2.12 MB·English

by  Rod Phillips

Alcohol
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Alcohol
A History
Rod Phillips
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
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© 2014 ROD PHILLIPS
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of
America.
Designed by Sally Scruggs and set in Calluna by codeMantra.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The
University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Jacket illustration © benidio/Stockphoto.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Phillips, Roderick.
Alcohol : a history / Rod Phillips.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4696-1760-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN
978-1-4696-1761-9 (ebook)
1. Alcohol—Social aspects—History. 2. Drinking of
alcoholic beverages—
Social aspects—History. 3. Alcoholic beverage
industry—History. I. Title.
GT2884.P45 2014
394.1′3—dc23
2014013124
18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
4
TO RUTH
Companion to many archives, companion in many glasses
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Contents
Introduction
1. ALCOHOL IN ANCIENT WORLDS
Nature and the Human Hand
2. GREECE AND ROME
The Superiority of Wine
3. RELIGION AND ALCOHOL
The Paths of Christianity and Islam
4. THE MIDDLE AGES, 1000–1500
The Birth of an Industry
5. EARLY MODERN EUROPE, 1500–1700
Alcohol, Religion, and Culture
6. DISTILLED SPIRITS, 1500–1750
Threats to the Social Order
7. EUROPEAN ALCOHOL IN CONTACT, 1500–1700
Non-European Worlds
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8. EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1700–1800
Alcohol, Enlightenment, and Revolutions
9. ALCOHOL AND THE CITY, 1800–1900
Class and Social Order
10. THE ENEMIES OF ALCOHOL, 1830–1914
Temperance and Prohibition
11. ALCOHOL AND NATIVE PEOPLES, 1800–1930
Race, Order, and Control
12. THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914–1920
The Battles against Alcohol
13. PROHIBITIONS, 1910–1935
Noble Experiments, Ignoble Failures
14. AFTER PROHIBITIONS, 1930–1945
Normalizing Alcohol
15. ALCOHOL IN THE MODERN WORLD
Trends in Regulation and Consumption
Conclusion
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Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
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Alcohol
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Introduction
Ever since humans began to consume alcohol, they have had
a difficult relationship with it. Alcohol is a colorless liquid
that has, in itself, no material, cultural, or moral value. But
like many other commodities, it has been ascribed
complicated and often contradictory sets of values that have
varied over time and place, and that are interwoven with the
complexities of power, gender, class, ethnicity, and age in the
societies in which it is consumed.
All these values derive fundamentally from the action of
alcohol on the human nervous system. Readers who have
consumed alcohol will recognize one or more of the stages of
intoxication that begin with the first sip of alcohol, whether it
is beer, whiskey, wine, a cocktail, or a beverage made from
the myriad commodities used to produce alcohol. A small
volume of alcohol generally gives the drinker a sense of
well-being, and further drinking can lead, in turn, to feelings
of euphoria, relaxation of social inhibitions, loss of balance
and coordination, slurred speech, vomiting, and loss of
consciousness. Severe cases of alcoholic poisoning can be
fatal.
Needless to say, not all consumers of alcohol drink so much
that that they experience anything more than a pleasant and
uplifting sense of well-being. Not only did that sense became
highly valued and much sought-after, but the state of euphoric
otherworldliness that came with further drinking has been, in
some cultures, thought of as spiritual and as bringing the
consumer closer to the gods. In other cultures, the potential of
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