Customer Reviews

Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol

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4 star:		(1)
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If you drink, ever wonder why? How did humans figure out how to create alcohol? Why don't people enjoy drinking grape juice as much as wine? How did it become a social thing? All these questions, and many more, are pondered and answered in this informative and interesting book. A good sociological examination as to why people drink, how they drink, why they drink what they do and why it's been viewed favorably by some cultures in history and unfavorably by others. As someone who is always fascinated by learning how humans tick and how we've changed through history - I found this book both relaxing (a good non controversial read) and thought provoking.

This book was very well written, and was a real pleasure to read. I like books like this that intertwine facts with historical anecdotes. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the cultural history of alcohol.

This book is quite long, but I never wanted to put it down. I think Iain Gately's writing style helps keep the book moving.

This history of the world according to drink was such a compelling and entertaining read I could not put it down. I then read it all the way through a second time, tabbing all my favourite anecdotes so that I could try to learn them. It really is that good.

Buy this book and read it. Then buy copies for your best friends - they will thank you for it.

This is a well researched and engaging book. I carried it around with me while i was reading it, and had many conversations with people who noticed it.

I would have liked more about microbreweries, but thats another book in itself i suppose.

From ancient Greece to MADD (Mothers Against Drunken Driving) Gately hits a beat. From Jacob's Creek to San Francisco steam, from Louis Pasteur's 1862 discovery that yeast eats sugar and excretes alcohol to the "green fairy" absinthe and its eventual prohibition, from the drift away from spitoons to tubes at home and the staggering popularity of Cognac in Hong Kong and Kristal in Harlem - a cornucopia of wit and tasty notes - to your health!

Years ago, when I was actually studying to become an alcoholism counselor, I read something from long-ago America, during some sort of political election..... One of the politicians was asked what he thought about alcohol and he proceeded to give an oratory as only a politician could: He said something along the lines of "If you are speaking of the gentle liquid that soothes a man's throat and makes of him a poet....etc. then I am all for alcohol! But, if you are speaking of the devil's brew that turns a man into a wife-beater and irresponsible employee....etc. then I am against the use of alcohol!" Has anyone ever read the entire "sermon", and is it included in this book? I have been trying to find it for years.......