Drink: A Social History of America - Softcover

Barr, Andrew

3.63

102 ratings by Goodreads

9780786707430: Drink: A Social History of America

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786707437 ISBN 13: 9780786707430

Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub, 2000

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Contemplates the cultural history of drink in America and the significance of alcohol, historically and socially, symbolic and real, in the evolution of a nation. Reprint.

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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 Kirkus Reviews:

An exploration of American drinking habits through time from a British scholar of booze. Barr (Wine Snobbery, 1992), a journalist for the London Sunday Times, offers a social history of drink in America, one organized by theme rather than by strict chronology. Throughout, one suspects that Barr never met a drink he didn't like (at least, that is, as a subject of inquiry), and he defends alcohol as ``a means of sharing, of cementing friendship, of defining status, of establishing loyalty, of entering adulthood, of declaring freedom.'' Of sclerotic livers and broken homes he has little to say, preferring instead to puzzle over Americans' puritanical attitudes toward such things as a lunchtime mug or two of brewa good source of nutrition, he insistsand our insistence on keeping minors away from the Ripple. Supporters of MADD won't much like Barr's sensible yet controversial discussion of the flaws of lowering the acceptable blood-alcohol content of drivers, which, he says, will lead only to the creation of a whole new class of lawbreakers and thereby assure that ``drink-driving laws will lose credibility''; they will also frown on Barr's view that a little alcohol every now and then is a good stress-reliever for pregnant women. But collectors of trivia will doubtless admire Barr's talent for ferreting out oddments of alcohol-related history, such as the English penchant for drinking beer in the place of water (the latter scorned in the class-conscious homeland, Barr writes, because it was free) and the connection between anti-German sentiment in WWI and the establishment of Prohibition. Barr might have done better to write more such history, thus living up to his book's subtitle, and to spend less time numbering the virtues of John Barleycorn in the face of alcohol's critics. All in all, Barr's book makes for good bathroom reading for the family tosspotand for good talk-show fodder. (b&w photos, not seen), (QPB selection) -- Copyright �1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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