Drink: A Social History of America [Hardcover]

Andrew Barr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

In this shrewd cultural history of drink in America, Andrew Barr considers the significance of alcohol, historically and socially, symbolic and real, in the evolution of a nation born of a rebel spirit and intoxicated by liberty - and sometimes by rum or raw whiskey, which the colonists preferred to their royally taxed British tea. While Americans have both asserted and celebrated their freedoms with alcohol they have also, in Barr's perceptive historical view, put it to more insidious use; in suppressing native American populations in the country's expansion west, for instance, or in controlling acculturation of immigrants. Blending his candidly opinionated take on history with a lively bit of cultural anthropology, Barr examines not only the social influences that determine what, where, and why we choose to drink but also the social ills that have been attributed to alcohol, from the supposed decline in national values to the dipsomaniacal state of our national health. Barr argues, however, that the scapegoating of alcohol by moral alarmists, the medical establishment, and platform politicians has more often produced dubious cures and moral hypocrisy than it has accomplished social good.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"It is not generally appreciated how extreme American attitudes about alcohol appear from the other side of the Atlantic."

With an opening line such as that, it's not surprising that Drink: A Social History of America engages in its share of Yankee-bashing. British journalist Andrew Barr's look at American culture through a glass (somewhat blearily) is an attempt "to understand the history of the United States through its attitudes to liquor and its changing tastes in drink." In reality, however, Barr lurches and staggers from topic to topic--from prohibition to martinis to ice to air conditioning to bland American beer in one 10-page sample--in this swirling cocktail party of a book. That's not to say that Barr's book isn't enjoyable--in fact, it's often delightful. Barr serves up amusing stories (such as that of poor King Charles II of Navarre, immolated in an alcohol-soaked sheet), interesting factoids (the first grapevines in California were planted at the San Juan Capistrano mission in 1779), and strong opinions. Some of his opinions are funny, some are bound to raise hackles (that alcoholism is not a disease, but a "failure of personality," for example), while others are somewhat sensible but destined to be unpopular. Barr feels that Americans have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, so we should teach young people (and those who drink to excess) to drink sensibly, worry less about pregnant women having the occasional drink and more about prenatal care, and switch the focus from stricter drunk-driving laws to laws aimed at reducing dangers such as cell-phone use and road rage. Just when things get too serious, however, Barr is off again in another direction with another witty snippet. Unfortunately, like many partygoers, Barr tends to repeat himself--frequent footnotes direct the reader to "See Chapter 4," "See Chapter 4 again," or even "See Chapter 4 once more." Perfect for browsing or ingesting in small doses, too much Drink in one sitting may leave readers with a headache. --C.B. Delaney

From Publishers Weekly

The main point of this cheerful mixture of polemic and cultural history is that Americans are both bad drunks and bad tee-totalers. London Sunday Times journalist Barr (Wine Snobbery, a social history of drink in Great Britain) makes entertaining work of tracing how alcohol has been intertwined with American history. Ever since European immigrants got Native Americans drunk in order to fleece them of their land and goods, booze has been a lubricant of American expansion and growth. During the American Revolution, alcohol became a symbol of independence (thanks to British attempts to tax molasses and Madeira), and rebels plotted resistance to the crown in New England taverns. Prohibition, in Barr's view, reflected a wider cultural conflict in which native-born WASPs attacked immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, viewing their custom of drinking at meals as symptomatic of sloth. "In its view of liquor, America is out of step with the rest of the Western world," chides Barr, arguing that Americans have never outgrown their tendency to oscillate between binge drinking and abstinence, between debauch and ineffectual puritanism. Barr further argues that alcoholism is not a disease but a failure of personality. And while he acknowledges that strict law enforcement and campaigns like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers have contributed to a decline in drunk-driving auto accidents, he opposes setting the minimum drinking age at 21. While his arguments may nettle or infuriate, his opinionated chronicle is briskly engaging and full of wondrous lore on Americans' eating and drinking habits. Eight-pages of b&w photos. QPB selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 466 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub; 1st US edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786705590
• ISBN-13: 978-0786705597
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,631,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the future connoussieur or the occasional drinker, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Drink: A Social History of America (Hardcover)

This is not a book on alcohol, but more specifically a meandering tour of how alcohol shaped the American culture. From the history of the three-martini lunch to the failure of the Prohibition, Barr explains the whole deal with the perspective of common observation. If you are the type that picks the expensive wines to make up for your lack of taste, Barr explains the history behind these developed habits. Or the moderate drinker who believes it's good for the heart, Barr explains why. A truly honest story that might make you want to relive the old days when wine sold at dollars for a gallon. Barr will make you want to get off your duff and try mixing your own concoction of rum punch?

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Skewering America's Sacred Cows, March 28, 2001

By 

C. Ivicevich (California, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drink: A Social History of America (Hardcover)

Do not read this book if you are a prohibitionist, a MADD nut, a Protestant fundamentalist, or a sensitive democrat (as in one who worships democracy). This book is an informative and refreshing antidote to self-righteous temperance posturing, puerile nostrums regarding youth and alcohol, and misconceptions about America's love/hate relationship with the divine nectar, written from a sardonic British perspective.

I especially enjoyed the chapter entitled "Social Controls," which covers Prohibition and other attempts at prohibiting or regulating the liquid vice. Do not be fooled--prohibition is alive and well on university campuses throughout America. The 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age is a legacy of Prohibition and Victorian notions of youthful purity and vulnerability. The organizations and specific policies may change, but Americans' attitudes toward alcohol remain dangerously mired in ignorance. The Women's Christian Temperance Union has merely been replaced by MADD.

A very enjoyable book filled with interesting vignettes (though a bit repetitive in parts), Drink should be read with a fine beverage in hand, toasting blue noses and busybodies everywhere.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More an ad for wine than a real history, June 9, 2011

By 

Michael Rasmussen - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drink: A Social History of America (Paperback)

While there are certainly some interesting facts, and I tend to agree with many of the numerous opinions of the author about prohibition of any sort, far too much of the book focuses on his obvious preference for wine over all other drinks and his obvious disdain for spirits. He even has a piece where he talks about British wine snobs in an unfavorable light, but then concludes with one of the snobbiest British interpretations of American culture I can imagine. If you are going to write about American drinking culture and history, try to address it without such an obvious bias or you do nothing but confirm the reasons the majority of Americans don't like wine as much as you think they should.

There are other books on the topic that are more approachable and less snobby, get one of those unless you are a wine snob and want to have your opinions confirmed by a foreigner.