Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition

by William J. Rorabaugh

Book Overview

"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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195029909
• ISBN13: 9780195029901
• Release Date: September 1981
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Pros & Cons

What I liked: The author used many humorous stories to make his point, keeping the book both entertaining and instructive. He also used primary sources, which upped his credibility. The book was easy to read and took the time to explain processes such as distilling. It gave a variety of arguments that one could easily understand and used logic and psychology. I particularly liked the use of psychology, and it was something one doesn't usually encounter in a history book. The Appendix also contained information, and my favorite was a recipe that used several different kinds of alcohol to make a "punch." The author also gave background information on many things that were indirectly related to the drinking - things such as eating, jobs, urban sprawl, etc. It was very fascinating the way he tied everything together. He gave a pretty objective view. He wasn't really making an argument, more like informing readers on what was going and why. He seemed to be unbiased and, in some ways, detached (but never bored with his subject). What I didn't like: The sources were not posted at the end of the page or chapter, but at the end of the book. This was slightly frustrating, as there were several times I wanted to check the author's source but it was a hassle to have to find it each time. Also, when several sources were used in one paragraph, he didn't "cite" anything until the end of the paragraph. This made it look like he wasn't citing some of his sources - if I hadn't read his notes on the bibliography I probably wouldn't have figured it out. It was also slightly confusing to tell what time the author was talking about. He seemed to jump around from time period to time period, and it would've been nicer to have the focus on, say, the 1820s, when alcoholic beverage drinking was at an all-time high. Overall, it was an excellent read, and I recommend it to all history buffs (or alcohol buffs).

Were the Founding Fathers Blotto?

Given the drinking habits of Americans of all social classes in the 18th Century, as described by Prof. Rorabaugh, there's a good chance that some or many of the leaders who gathered in Philadelphia for various momentous decisions were "under the influence" a good part of every day. But then, so was everyone, man, woman, and child, with the probable exception of slaves. No stigma attached to the drinking of mild alcoholic beverages, such as the universal hard cider, although a few smart fellows - Ben Franklin and Ben Rush inter alia - had come to recognize some of the health issues of drinking hard liquors. There are amusing tales about the drinking habits of Chief Justice John Marshall. Before he took his seat on the Court, a tradition had been established of allowing an open bottle of fortified wine on each justice's desk on cold and rainy days. Supposedly Marshall, a life long heavy drinker, declared 'the USA is a large enough country that it must be raining somewhere every day' and thereafter allowed the bottles at all times. Rorabaugh's writing style is a blend of down-home aw-shucks anecdote and solid scholarship, a combination that makes his book highly enjoyable but that somewhat distracts attention from the serious social history he is delivering. Changes in drinking habits, and in attitudes toward drinking, had a lot more to do with increasing hostility to certain immigrant populations - German and Irish - and with rapidly increasing class consciousness and economic inequality. Those are very significant threads in the social history of ante-bellum America, and Prof. Rorabaugh's account of the temperance movement can be seen as a synechdoche for the polarization of all American public lief and politics. In the long run, the same impulses that led earnest citizens to campaign for temperance were also the impulses that led to abolition, women's suffrage, civil service reforms, sanitation committees, and the "Social Gospel" movement - every progressive reform, in short, in American history before the repeal of Prohibition. Don't let the cover of this book deceive you! This is substantial historiography, well researched and more insightful than inebriating.

You think Americans drink a lot now? Just wait...

The United States has long had a reputation for heavy drinking. Guzzling to the point of intoxication still reigns as a favorite pasttime for high school and college students, and even for some adults. Banning liquor on college campuses can lead to riots (a lesson learned the hard way even recently), and some people will jump through any impossible hoop to ensure their portion of the communal keg. Though alcohol still creates problems for the current generation, what were the attitudes of Americans towards it historically? Has drunkedness always been an issue in America? Not much literature existed on the subject in the 1970s, which the author noticed while researching nineteenth century temperance pamphlets. He then found that drinking weaves a deep and unpredictable path through United States history. But he found some unexpected things along the way. These findings led him to write "The Alcoholic Republic". An eye-widening surprise opens the book: Americans actually drank more liquor between the years 1790 and 1820 than ever before or since. We actually drink half as much alcohol today as our post Revolutionary ancestors. A chart in the first chapter shows consumption peaking at over 5 gallons per capita in the early 1800s as contrasted with approximately 2 gallons in 1970. A sharp drop occurred in the 1840s and the rate hovered around 2 gallons going forward. Looking at data published by the National Institutes of Health after the book's 1979 publication shows that the rate peaked at only 2.7 gallons in the early 1980s and leveled off at 2.2 gallons in 2002. So the early nineteenth century rate of 5 gallons per capita still remains shocking even with current data. This leads to the inevitable question of why Americans used to drink so much. To answer this vexing question the author delves into the history of alcohol in Colonial and Revolutionary America. Suprisingly, in the seventeeth century alcohol was seen as "A Good Creature" and as healthful and nutritious to drink. But slowly, by the 1720s, some suspected that alcohol contributed towards reprehensible behavior and disease. Unfortunately, access to alcohol, especially rum, increased as the price dropped (due to more efficient methods of production). So all classess could imbibe with near impunity. By the late eighteenth century some physicians such as Benjamin Rush (still practising the Galenic theory of medicine) began to publish anti liquor tracts condemning it as dangerous. Most were ignored (which invites a comparison to today's anti-smoking literature). But by the 1820s a national temperance movement had gathered momentum. Still, consumption continued, and rum even became a medium of exchange in early America. Water, by sharp contrast, was not drunk by most Americans because it was seen as unhealthy (except for rain water, which didn't contain thick sediments). Copious alcohol stood as the most palatable option for drinks. And everyone drank, including women, children, politicians

The Drunkenness of the American Tradition

If you enjoy reading history, pull up a chair and pour down the whisky because you are going to read "The Alcoholic Republic." It is on the drinking patterns in the United States and the reading is simply interesting as well fascinating. You thought drinking was terrible these days lets go back to the great alcoholic binge of the nineteenth century. "It was the consensus, then, among a wide variety of observers that Americans drank great quantities of alcohol. The beverages they drank were for the most part distilled liquors, commonly known as spirits.. whiskey, rum, gin and brandy. On the average those liquors were 45 percent alcohol, or, in the language of distillers, 90 proof." (Page 7)It is simply a fun history book to read and recommend the drunkenness to anyone interested in the drinking habits of previous Americans. I give it five stars because it is one of the most interesting history books I have read in a long time.

good smart book about how colonial Americans drank like fish

If you don't understand drinking, you don't understand American history. Colonial Americans drank like fish ‹ average whiskey consumption one pint daily. In the early 1800s they went on a bigger binge, mostly on hard liquor and drinking alone, rather than sociably like in the old days. Rorabaugh says this explains how the temperance movement came up just then, & it was the stress of industrialization & frontier loneliness & inflated dreams for the new nation. Readable & smart & has the good modern historical perspective on ³alcoholism² but¹s still skeptical of heavy intoxicant use.