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Taverns and Drinking in Early America

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Sharon Salinger explores taverns and drinking in Britain's North American colonies. Her primary focus is on the socializing functions of taverns at a time when nearly every one frequented them as the common house of the community. The book examines the tavern's political, economic, and religious functions in mainland communities. She explores the variation and inevitable presence of laws and rules of conduct within drinking houses. The settlements themselves are divided into four geographic regions and examined in the context of their primary religion; Anglican, Puritan, and Quaker. The book delves into the different expectations of drunkenness for and between men, women, Indians, and even children. Different establishments often served different clientele divided on a strictly class based hierarchy. Prostitution and taverns are examined in this light. While there is ample new research, Taverns and Drinking in Early America is largely a synthesis of earlier works that focused more narrowly on a specific region or group. Salinger maintains that taverns were not a place where social norms broke down but one of the primary institutions where they were enforced and maintained.