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Avg. Customer Rating:(based on 3 reviews) Sales Rank: 23962 Category: Book
Author:Iain Gately Publisher:Gotham Studio:Gotham Manufacturer:Gotham Label:Gotham Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published) Media: Hardcover Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 560 Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8 Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.8
Product Description A spirited look at the history of alcohol from the dawn of civilization to the twenty first century
For better or worse, alcohol has helped shape our civilization. Throughout history, it has been consumed not just to quench our thirsts or nourish our bodies but also for cultural reasons. It has been associated since antiquity with celebration, creativity, friendship, and danger, for every drinking culture has acknowledged it possesses a dark side.
In Drink, Iain Gately traces the course of humanity?s 10,000 year old love affair with the substance which has been dubbed ?the cause of?and solution to?all of life?s problems.? Along the way he scrutinises the drinking habits of presidents, prophets, and barbarian hordes, and features drinkers as diverse as Homer, Hemmingway, Shakespeare, Al Capone, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Covering matters as varied as bacchanals in Imperial Rome, the gin craze in 17th century London, the rise and fall of the temperance movement, and drunk driving, Drink details the benefits and burdens alcohol has conveyed to the societies in which it is consumed. Gately?s lively and provocative style brings to life the controversies, past and present, that have raged over alcohol, and uses the authentic voices of drinkers and their detractors to explode myths and reveal truths about this most equivocal of fluids.
Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the war of Independence, the Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, the slave trade, and the failed experiment of National Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world?s best loved drinks. Enthusiasts of craft brews and fine wines will discover the origins of their favorite tipples, and what they have in common with Greek philosophers and medieval princes every time they raise a glass.
A rollicking tour through humanity?s love affair with alcohol, Drink is an intoxicating history of civilization
Customer Reviews:
From Sumeria to Napa Valley September 23, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Gately brings us a lively, humorous chronicle of the culture of booze from ancient Mesopotamia to our own day. The Dorothy Parker ditty on page 378 is alone worth the price of admission.
Subtract a total of one star for the following editorial oversights:
On page 44 we are told Pliny the Younger was a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius.
On page 134 we are told Gabriel Metsu's Old Drinker is holding the pipe in his left hand and the tankard in his right.
On page 145 we are told that the Carolina colonies made progress in the second half of the sixteenth century.
On page 249 we are told that Saint Paul at his redemption was en route for Tarsus.
Not a review, but a question..... September 15, 2008 1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Years ago, when I was actually studying to become an alcoholism counselor, I read something from long-ago America, during some sort of political election..... One of the politicians was asked what he thought about alcohol and he proceeded to give an oratory as only a politician could: He said something along the lines of "If you are speaking of the gentle liquid that soothes a man's throat and makes of him a poet....etc. then I am all for alcohol! But, if you are speaking of the devil's brew that turns a man into a wife-beater and irresponsible employee....etc. then I am against the use of alcohol!" Has anyone ever read the entire "sermon", and is it included in this book? I have been trying to find it for years.......
Classic August 21, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
From ancient Greece to MADD (Mothers Against Drunken Driving) Gately hits a beat. From Jacob's Creek to San Francisco steam, from Louis Pasteur's 1862 discovery that yeast eats sugar and excretes alcohol to the "green fairy" absinthe and its eventual prohibition, from the drift away from spitoons to tubes at home and the staggering popularity of Cognac in Hong Kong and Kristal in Harlem - a cornucopia of wit and tasty notes - to your health!
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