Taverns and Drinking in Early America
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press
Published:3rd Jul '02
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£29.00(9780801878992)
American colonists knew just two types of public buildings,churches and taverns - and drinking houses far outnumbered places of worship. At a time when drinking water supposedly endangered one's health, colonists of every rank, age, race and gender drank often and in quantity. Sharon V. Salinger offers a study of public houses and drinking throughout the mainland British colonies. Salinger explores the obvious and obscure ends that alcohol met in colonial society. Tavern patrons might engage in a heated argument about the price of wheat, debate the inspirational quality of the minister's sermon, plot political action, exchange news, offer countless toasts, or share a convivial pint with friends. Salinger also looks at the similarities and differences in the roles of drinking and tavern sociability in New England, the mid-Atlantic, the Chesapeake and the South; in small towns, cities, and the countryside; and in Anglican, Quaker and Puritan communities. Her findings challenge the prevailing view that taverns tended to break down class and gender differences. Instead, she argues they did not signal social change so much as buttress custom and encourage exclusion.
The most comprehensive survey to date of this curiously underinvestigated aspect of early American social life . . . [Contains] a wealth of illustrative and amusing anecdotes . . . Well researched and informative.
—Simon Middleton, William and Mary Quarterly
Offers a fresh perspective on one of the colonial period's most important social institutions and the drinking behavior that was central to it . . . Salinger's work is compelling throughout . . . A significant and satisfying book.
—Mark Edward Lender, American Historical Review
A richly detailed study that helps us understand popular and genteel culture in early America, the place of drink in everyday life, and the relationship between law and perceptions of disorderly behavior.
—Paul G. E. Clemens, Journal of American History
Taverns and Drinking in Early America pulls together the results of many other works focused more narrowly on particular colonies or regions and provides a much greater synthesis than we have ever enjoyed before . . . A well-written, very entertaining overview of an important subject.
—Daniel B. Thorp, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
A thorough overview of this often overlooked institution in early America.
—George Brown, North Carolina Historical Review
Salinger gives us the best description yet available of the nature of tavern life and the efforts of colonial governments to manage it.
—Elaine Frantz Parsons, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Salinger's book offers the broadest study yet of the role of taverns in colonial life, and readers will find a good deal of useful information presented in clear and accessible prose.
—Matthew Mulcahy, South Carolina Historical Magazine
This important book offers the first recent attempt at a comparative synthesis combined with a general interpretation of tavern life.
—Richard P. Gildrie, Journal of Southern History
ISBN: 9780801868788
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 612g
328 pages