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Cargando... The Alcoholic Republic: An American Traditionpor W. J. Rorabaugh
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Rorabough looks at the history of drinking in America up until the temperance movement, with a focus on the period of heaviest drinking: the early 1800's. The daily per capita intake of distilled spirits was incredibly high at that point in time, and binge drinking was common. The book talks about the psychology of heavy drinking, and what created the temperance movement of the 1830's. It was quite interesting. Definitely recommended. The United States has an ambivalent relationship with alcohol. It is a large segment of the economy as well as social life, but many religious groups condemn alcohol as a sin. W.J. Rorabaugh explores American society's relationship with alcoholic drink. Distilled spirits were a prominent part of society in the colonial era and early republic, Rum was the most prevalent drink prior to the revolution. Rum and mollasses, to distill into rum, were imported from the Caribbean. Whiskey was produced domestically from grain and was generally of poorer quality. After the revolution, Difficulty in importing rum and patriotic association with American made whiskey the drink of choice. Expansion across the Appalachians also contributed to whiskey production. Grain was more expensive to transport over the mountains or down the Mississippi and earned a lower price than if it were distilled into whiskey. Rorabaugh sees the 1820's as the high point of alcohol consuption (per capita) in American history. By 1830, however, alcohol consumption began to decline because of sweeping changes in society. The transportation revolution allowed western farmers to transport their crops east more profitably. This was coupled with the 2nd Great Awakening, which spawned a religious revival that connected drinking to sin. In addition, the American ethos of productivity was forming, which saw drunkenness as a detrimentt. Rorabaugh provides an entertaining, even if occasionally confused, narative. His conclusions, however, are somewhat dubious. He sees America developing dual ethos during this period, one with an emphasis on religion and emphasis on frugality and productivity. Both were reactions to massive upheavals in American society, but they did not complement each other well, except for the issue of temperance. Rorabaugh sees temperance as the bridge between the two, allowing them to cooperate. The fact that prohibition collapsed at the same time as the capitalist economy supports his argument. Prohibition's failure completely discredited temperance, eliminating this bridge and contributing to the polarizing of society between religion on secular production. The Alcoholic Republic is an entertaining book. At times, it provides some useful information into the relationship between alcohol consumption and society. It does not, however, provide much new insight into either temperance or prohibition. It is an easy and fun read, but not particulary useful. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
"Rorabaugh has written a well thought out and intriguing social history of America's great alcoholic binge that occurred between 1790 and 1830, what he terms 'a key formative period' in our history....A pioneering work that illuminates a part of our heritage that can no longer be neglected in future studies of America's social fabric."--Journal of Psychohistory"A bold and frequently illuminating attempt to investigate the relationship of a single social custom to the central features of our historical experience....A book which always asks interesting questions and provides many provocative answers."--Reviews in American History"Great! The dual emphasis on common lifestyles and on reform, on qualitative and quantitative methods make it ideal for undergraduates."--Dan Woods, Ferrum College"This accessible monograph is grounded in a useful combination of social psychology and social history, providing undergraduates with an excellent example of how to use theory and evidence to elucidate an important and much-neglected episode in American history."--Simon Cordery, Monmouth College No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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This was interesting overall -- it is a scholarly work -- but the author may have overreached in his analyses of *why* there was so much drinking going on. Such as saying pioneer folks were lonely/isolated & anxious. Did he have any hard evidence that was so? Yes, I'm sure some turned to drink because of isolation.
More interesting were facts such as how/why whiskey replaced rum (simply put, rum was taxed) as favored drink.
I think at the time, this was a groundbreaking work on this topic. ( )