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Alcohol: A History
Whether as wine, beer, or spirits, alcohol has had a constant and often controversial role in social life. In his innovative book on the attitudes toward and consumption of alcohol, Rod Phillips surveys a 9,000-year cultural and economic history, uncovering the tensions between alcoholic drinks as healthy staples of daily diets and as objects of social, political, and religious anxiety. In the urban centers of Europe and America, where it was seen as healthier than untreated water, alcohol gained a foothold as the drink of choice, but it has been regulated by governmental and religious authorities more than any other commodity. As a potential source of social disruption, alcohol created volatile boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable consumption and broke through barriers of class, race, and gender.
Phillips follows the ever-changing cultural meanings of these potent potables and makes the surprising argument that some societies have entered "post-alcohol" phases. His is the first book to examine and explain the meanings and effects of alcohol in such depth, from global and long-term perspectives.
Phillips follows the ever-changing cultural meanings of these potent potables and makes the surprising argument that some societies have entered "post-alcohol" phases. His is the first book to examine and explain the meanings and effects of alcohol in such depth, from global and long-term perspectives.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryAlcohol
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 11, 2015
The first 3/4 of this book were very fascinating and the sort of scholarly diction didn't bother me at all. I learned a lot of interesting tidbits like Jesus was originally a wine god of sorts. And I am now obsessed with the Middle Ages and the women and Alewives dominating the brewing scene in that period.
The last forth was a little bit of a slog in part because of the authors style but more so because history as it is want to do repeats itself. So you more or less get the same story of man's relationship to alcohol as you did in the previous 600 plus years. Also I am slightly disappointing at lack of information regarding the relationship many Asian countries had with alcohol over the course of the history explored here, especially sake. Africa is largely ignored as well as is South America except in terms of the west's dealing with these areas. But I can't deny it gave some very illuminating ideas on the subject.
For example in the wine world today there is a preference towards young and drinkable wines and sweeter as opposed to wines you store and let ripen. This trend is merely going back to the very early years of wine in Europe where anything over 3 months old was thought rancid and undrinkable. It was in the late 19th and 29th centuries that wine especially French Wine became the gold standard and you were meant to by it and drink 5, 10, or 20 years later.
I would say it is certainly worth reading for anyone interested in alcohols history over the ages but would benefit to from further reading of other books on the subject to complete the larger narrative. But for the casual foodie or food historian it may be a bit of a "chore" to get through towards the end. And I would've enjoyed more history and context on the actual alcohol production even though this book wasn't really about that.
The last forth was a little bit of a slog in part because of the authors style but more so because history as it is want to do repeats itself. So you more or less get the same story of man's relationship to alcohol as you did in the previous 600 plus years. Also I am slightly disappointing at lack of information regarding the relationship many Asian countries had with alcohol over the course of the history explored here, especially sake. Africa is largely ignored as well as is South America except in terms of the west's dealing with these areas. But I can't deny it gave some very illuminating ideas on the subject.
For example in the wine world today there is a preference towards young and drinkable wines and sweeter as opposed to wines you store and let ripen. This trend is merely going back to the very early years of wine in Europe where anything over 3 months old was thought rancid and undrinkable. It was in the late 19th and 29th centuries that wine especially French Wine became the gold standard and you were meant to by it and drink 5, 10, or 20 years later.
I would say it is certainly worth reading for anyone interested in alcohols history over the ages but would benefit to from further reading of other books on the subject to complete the larger narrative. But for the casual foodie or food historian it may be a bit of a "chore" to get through towards the end. And I would've enjoyed more history and context on the actual alcohol production even though this book wasn't really about that.
March 13, 2025
Three themes that drip on ya, the booze universals constant through time:
1. Blessing or curse, danger or joy? In small servings it’s one, but in excess the levy breaks. Though the ascetics have always held some sway—and often enough in religious spheres—moderation has been the most consistent answer, especially pre-19th century, before the advent of clean water sources mitigated reliance on alcohol as antiseptic.
2. On a related note, there’s always been—and may always be?—a back on forth on whether alcohol is actually beneficial to your health or just deleterious. Skunk drunk has never been healthy (or societally applauded), but in moderation? In earlier times, the supposed health benefits ranged from the observable to the downright mystical (as with most psychoactive substances, often more of the latter), while in modern times—as of the book’s publication—Phillips touts the commonplace medical opinion that alcohol (in moderation) protects against heart disease and certain cancers; in other words, a return to the pre-19th century view of alcohol as a health tonic. In these more recent months of 2024-2025 (10+ years after Phillips’s writing), it seems the tide may be turning again; with the surgeon general shining a spotlight on alcohol as the 3rd leading cause of cancer, other researchers have piled on, identifying the embattled drug as a carcinogen… Phillips didn’t write late enough to capture this turn, but he frames us to understand it.
3. With money to be made, alcohol’s here to stay. Good luck changing that.
1. Blessing or curse, danger or joy? In small servings it’s one, but in excess the levy breaks. Though the ascetics have always held some sway—and often enough in religious spheres—moderation has been the most consistent answer, especially pre-19th century, before the advent of clean water sources mitigated reliance on alcohol as antiseptic.
2. On a related note, there’s always been—and may always be?—a back on forth on whether alcohol is actually beneficial to your health or just deleterious. Skunk drunk has never been healthy (or societally applauded), but in moderation? In earlier times, the supposed health benefits ranged from the observable to the downright mystical (as with most psychoactive substances, often more of the latter), while in modern times—as of the book’s publication—Phillips touts the commonplace medical opinion that alcohol (in moderation) protects against heart disease and certain cancers; in other words, a return to the pre-19th century view of alcohol as a health tonic. In these more recent months of 2024-2025 (10+ years after Phillips’s writing), it seems the tide may be turning again; with the surgeon general shining a spotlight on alcohol as the 3rd leading cause of cancer, other researchers have piled on, identifying the embattled drug as a carcinogen… Phillips didn’t write late enough to capture this turn, but he frames us to understand it.
3. With money to be made, alcohol’s here to stay. Good luck changing that.
June 2, 2026
Alcohol : A History (2014) by Rod Phillips is a good history of Alcohol. Phillips is a professor of history who specialises in writing about wine and alcohol. The book is centered on Europe.
Phillips takes the story of alcohol all the way back to 7000 BC when the first pots have been discovered that have traces of alcohol. It’s likely that fermenting fruit and grains goes back even earlier. Some animals are known to like eating fermented fruit for intoxication. But once humans started farming and settled in one place they began to grow grapes and grains deliberately.
The book continues by looking at alcohol in Greece and Rome. Both spread vineyards widely. Both also venerated wine and denigrated beer. At the time and for the following centuries wine was also often drunk diluted with water. Phillips next writes about religion and alcohol and how the Christian Church had wine at the heart of their ceremonies while Islam banned it. The vineyards and beers of the Islamic world disappeared.
In the Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe alcohol was central to much of life. People drank a lot. Water was often polluted so alcohol did help somewhat. Spirits became a much bigger part of alcohol consumption from the 1500s. Europeans also used alcohol in the ships they sailed around the world and traded alcohol where possible.
As people became wealthier from the 1700s onward alcohol consumption increased and drunkenness, always a problem, became worse. From the 1800s onward temperance unions arose. This was also around the time when clean drinking water in cities became available. The drive against alcohol culminated in prohibition in the US and in some other countries in the early 1900s. While this failed, the effects remained.
In the modern world alcohol is still widely drunk, but the amount drunk has declined in most countries. It is still an integral part of European Civilisation.
Alcohol does a very good job of outlining the history of alcohol production and consumption in Europe and the Middle East. It’s a tale that goes back pretty much as long as civilisation itself. There is a lot to be learnt about the way alcohol has been shaped and shapes our world. I enjoyed the book, with the odd glass, of course.
Phillips takes the story of alcohol all the way back to 7000 BC when the first pots have been discovered that have traces of alcohol. It’s likely that fermenting fruit and grains goes back even earlier. Some animals are known to like eating fermented fruit for intoxication. But once humans started farming and settled in one place they began to grow grapes and grains deliberately.
The book continues by looking at alcohol in Greece and Rome. Both spread vineyards widely. Both also venerated wine and denigrated beer. At the time and for the following centuries wine was also often drunk diluted with water. Phillips next writes about religion and alcohol and how the Christian Church had wine at the heart of their ceremonies while Islam banned it. The vineyards and beers of the Islamic world disappeared.
In the Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe alcohol was central to much of life. People drank a lot. Water was often polluted so alcohol did help somewhat. Spirits became a much bigger part of alcohol consumption from the 1500s. Europeans also used alcohol in the ships they sailed around the world and traded alcohol where possible.
As people became wealthier from the 1700s onward alcohol consumption increased and drunkenness, always a problem, became worse. From the 1800s onward temperance unions arose. This was also around the time when clean drinking water in cities became available. The drive against alcohol culminated in prohibition in the US and in some other countries in the early 1900s. While this failed, the effects remained.
In the modern world alcohol is still widely drunk, but the amount drunk has declined in most countries. It is still an integral part of European Civilisation.
Alcohol does a very good job of outlining the history of alcohol production and consumption in Europe and the Middle East. It’s a tale that goes back pretty much as long as civilisation itself. There is a lot to be learnt about the way alcohol has been shaped and shapes our world. I enjoyed the book, with the odd glass, of course.
Read
September 11, 2024I had Rod Phillips as a professor during my time at university. While I very much enjoyed this book during the course, there was some chapters we never got around to due to syllabus constraints and I always told myself I would go back and read them.
July 30, 2026
Alcohol has a very long history of association with mankind, just like the taming of domestic animals or the invention of the wheel. The discovery of the fermentation of sugar in fruits into alcohol was definitely a landmark event in history as it probably provided humans the first opportunity to experience something 'out of the ordinary' - those who drink surely know what I am talking about! Over the ages, the drink went through several transformations, such as an intoxicating substance to a healthy beverage and nowadays back to an undesirable one. When the quality of water supply in European cities was abysmal, alcohol was the only liquid safe to drink. But when the health risks of unwholesome potable water were realized and extensive piping arrangements were provided to ensure safe drinking water to the masses, alcohol was dislodged from the lofty pedestal on which it had reigned for much of history. Then came non-alcoholic beverages such as tea and coffee that provided an acceptable alternative to alcohol as a stimulant. Temperance and prohibitionist movements took birth around this time and severe restrictions were placed on the distribution of alcohol. The US - of all the places - experimented with a total ban on alcohol for 13 years from 1920 to 1933. This book provides a good summary of alcohol from the ancient past to the twenty-first century. The drawback is that it focusses only on the West. Rod Phillips is professor of history at Carlton University and is the author of 'A Short History of Wine'.
Phillips provides a skeletal account of the discovery and development of alcohol from the hoary past. 9000 years ago, someone found that if the juice of fruit or berries were left for a short time in warm enough conditions, it began to bubble or froth. Once the bubbling subsided, the resultant beverage produced a pleasant feeling when consumed in small quantities. Even though alcohol was fermented in almost all of the ancient societies, North America is an anomaly where there is no evidence of native peoples making alcohol despite the availability of suitable raw materials. Ancient Greece and Rome drank only wine and avoided beer, thinking it unfit for civilized people. They exported the knowledge of vine cultivation and winemaking to all of the known world. The Middle Ages (1000 - 1500) saw the birth of the alcohol industry close on the heels of economic prosperity and urbanization. City dwellers were not able to produce their own food and drink. Improvements in recipes catapulted the industry to new heights. Ale was made with gruit which was not suitable for keeping for a long time. Replacement of gruit with hops for bittering ensured longer preservation and industry flourished in the Middle Ages. Alcohol was considered safe for consumption as sources of plain water in Europe and America were polluted. The fermentation process itself and the method of adding alcohol to water killed harmful bacteria.
This book clearly traces out the social background in which alcohol entered the diet of Europeans and how opposition built up against it, along with the reasons. By the end of 1500s, distilled spirits entered mainstream drinking culture instead of fermented beverages. The first form of spirits to be produced was brandy which is distilled from wine, similarly rum was distilled from molasses. The distilled alcohol was known as aquavitae (water of life) in Europe. They contained much higher alcohol content than fermented drinks. By the early modern period (1500-1700), alcohol became firmly entrenched in the daily diets of European populations. Resistance to alcohol came to the fore in the nineteenth century when biblical scholars were working in a cultural climate increasingly receptive to temperance and prohibitionist ideas. They reinterpreted the treatment of alcohol in the Bible and claimed that wherever the term was used in a positive sense, it in fact meant grape juice. When tea was first introduced, it was recognized as having stimulating effects somewhat similar to alcohol's. Writers argued that tea was preferable to wine, because it conveyed all the benefits of wine without the disadvantages of intoxication and hangover. In the nineteenth century, many governments provided safe drinking water to many urban populations. Though this was led by concerns for public health and ideas about personal and social hygiene, it provided one of the bases for radical anti-alcohol movements. This made possible a real shift in the attitudes for a future without alcohol.
Being sourced from antiquity itself, alcohol attached itself to religion as well. Christianity elevated wine to a position of centrality in its symbolism and rituals, while Islam rejected alcohol entirely and forbade its followers to drink alcoholic beverages. Perhaps the greatest sanctity for wine was accorded by Christianity through the concept of transubstantiation, that at the Eucharist the substance of the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The wine used for this purpose was especially blessed and not of the ordinary variety. The author claims that Christianity introduced Christ as resembling a wine god in the model of Dionysus of Rome, who was also born of a god and a human woman. He too performed the miracle of turning water into wine, although he converted only three jars, whereas Christ did six! The importance of wine for communion led the Christian church and its institutions to become significant sponsors of an extensive wine industry. Many vineyards were planted on monastic lands and monasteries became important commercial producers of wine, a major part of which was sold to secular society. Phillips also points out that though Islam banned alcohol, it granted access to it in paradise, which is depicted as flowing with rivers of delicious wine. When temperance movements arose in modern times, many of them were imbued with Christian virtues and the religion's inalienable link to wine became a sticking point. A way out came in the form of Louis Pasteur who found that heating up grape juice killed off the yeasts needed to turn its sugars into alcohol. This enabled the production of stable juice that was free from the risk of fermentation. This 'unfermented wine' was used in church services. The Catholic Church, however, continues to use wine.
This book examines the issue of the use of alcohol with people of other continents, but sadly leaves out Asia. Portuguese wine was used in the slave trade to pay for the slaves. The Europeans also introduced alcoholic beverages in their colonies. In Mexico, they couldn't displace the local variety known as pulque, to which the whites were addicted too. Missionaries opposed selling alcohol to Native Americans only because 'it made them more difficult to convert' (p. 149). The eighteenth century saw the emergence of clearly defined, class-based drinking cultures and a much starker differentiation between elite and popular drinking. Native Americans were prohibited from alcoholic beverages by peculiar laws preventing sale of liquor to them. These became redundant in 1920 when Prohibition was extended to all races. When it was repealed in 1933, the Native Americans continued to be under prohibition. This was lifted only in 1953.
The twentieth century was the most restraining ever on alcohol. World War I was a watershed in the history of alcohol. Under the pressure of extended military conflict, growing concerns about alcohol crystallized and many governments introduced regulations which were largely maintained and even intensified long after the conflict ended. The US prohibited alcohol for recreational consumption in 1920. For thirteen years, the people of America resorted to a slew of subterfuges to get hands on a bottle of it. Finally, convinced of its futility, the ban was lifted in 1933. This rethink was also due to the Depression because it made the state lose revenue on liquor sales and employment opportunities for the vast unemployed masses in the liquor industry. In Nazi Germany, thousands of individuals identified as alcoholics were sterilized because they believed that it will be passed on to descendants. This was the taste of eugenics vigorously followed by the Nazi party. However, with the failure of Prohibition everywhere, the moralistic approach to alcoholism was shunned and more practical organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous emerged in 1935.
Considering the subject matter, I had expected at least a part of the narrative in a lighter vein. This expectation was belied from the outset as Phillips vied for an academic thesis that may grant him a higher degree than to entertain the readers. This makes the text somewhat tedious. A lot of information is condensed into its pages that may be of better use to a student than a hobbyist reader. Leaving out Asia is an unpardonable lapse in a book of this nature. To compensate for this shortcoming in some measure, the author has included some very basic, fleeting references to China, but India is totally left out. As parts of history, quotes from books of the period are included, which adequately illustrates several aspects of the issue at hand. This book leaves out scientific matter altogether. One would be interested to know the mechanism of how alcohol affects the brain and nervous system, and also how the body finally disposes it off, thereby causing irreversible damage to the liver. The author should have devoted a chapter on this topic. As of now, readers sign off from the book with a feeling that consuming alcohol is a pleasurable experience and that's why puritans oppose it in every way they can. Its life-threatening aftereffects are not at all highlighted.
The book is recommended.
Phillips provides a skeletal account of the discovery and development of alcohol from the hoary past. 9000 years ago, someone found that if the juice of fruit or berries were left for a short time in warm enough conditions, it began to bubble or froth. Once the bubbling subsided, the resultant beverage produced a pleasant feeling when consumed in small quantities. Even though alcohol was fermented in almost all of the ancient societies, North America is an anomaly where there is no evidence of native peoples making alcohol despite the availability of suitable raw materials. Ancient Greece and Rome drank only wine and avoided beer, thinking it unfit for civilized people. They exported the knowledge of vine cultivation and winemaking to all of the known world. The Middle Ages (1000 - 1500) saw the birth of the alcohol industry close on the heels of economic prosperity and urbanization. City dwellers were not able to produce their own food and drink. Improvements in recipes catapulted the industry to new heights. Ale was made with gruit which was not suitable for keeping for a long time. Replacement of gruit with hops for bittering ensured longer preservation and industry flourished in the Middle Ages. Alcohol was considered safe for consumption as sources of plain water in Europe and America were polluted. The fermentation process itself and the method of adding alcohol to water killed harmful bacteria.
This book clearly traces out the social background in which alcohol entered the diet of Europeans and how opposition built up against it, along with the reasons. By the end of 1500s, distilled spirits entered mainstream drinking culture instead of fermented beverages. The first form of spirits to be produced was brandy which is distilled from wine, similarly rum was distilled from molasses. The distilled alcohol was known as aquavitae (water of life) in Europe. They contained much higher alcohol content than fermented drinks. By the early modern period (1500-1700), alcohol became firmly entrenched in the daily diets of European populations. Resistance to alcohol came to the fore in the nineteenth century when biblical scholars were working in a cultural climate increasingly receptive to temperance and prohibitionist ideas. They reinterpreted the treatment of alcohol in the Bible and claimed that wherever the term was used in a positive sense, it in fact meant grape juice. When tea was first introduced, it was recognized as having stimulating effects somewhat similar to alcohol's. Writers argued that tea was preferable to wine, because it conveyed all the benefits of wine without the disadvantages of intoxication and hangover. In the nineteenth century, many governments provided safe drinking water to many urban populations. Though this was led by concerns for public health and ideas about personal and social hygiene, it provided one of the bases for radical anti-alcohol movements. This made possible a real shift in the attitudes for a future without alcohol.
Being sourced from antiquity itself, alcohol attached itself to religion as well. Christianity elevated wine to a position of centrality in its symbolism and rituals, while Islam rejected alcohol entirely and forbade its followers to drink alcoholic beverages. Perhaps the greatest sanctity for wine was accorded by Christianity through the concept of transubstantiation, that at the Eucharist the substance of the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The wine used for this purpose was especially blessed and not of the ordinary variety. The author claims that Christianity introduced Christ as resembling a wine god in the model of Dionysus of Rome, who was also born of a god and a human woman. He too performed the miracle of turning water into wine, although he converted only three jars, whereas Christ did six! The importance of wine for communion led the Christian church and its institutions to become significant sponsors of an extensive wine industry. Many vineyards were planted on monastic lands and monasteries became important commercial producers of wine, a major part of which was sold to secular society. Phillips also points out that though Islam banned alcohol, it granted access to it in paradise, which is depicted as flowing with rivers of delicious wine. When temperance movements arose in modern times, many of them were imbued with Christian virtues and the religion's inalienable link to wine became a sticking point. A way out came in the form of Louis Pasteur who found that heating up grape juice killed off the yeasts needed to turn its sugars into alcohol. This enabled the production of stable juice that was free from the risk of fermentation. This 'unfermented wine' was used in church services. The Catholic Church, however, continues to use wine.
This book examines the issue of the use of alcohol with people of other continents, but sadly leaves out Asia. Portuguese wine was used in the slave trade to pay for the slaves. The Europeans also introduced alcoholic beverages in their colonies. In Mexico, they couldn't displace the local variety known as pulque, to which the whites were addicted too. Missionaries opposed selling alcohol to Native Americans only because 'it made them more difficult to convert' (p. 149). The eighteenth century saw the emergence of clearly defined, class-based drinking cultures and a much starker differentiation between elite and popular drinking. Native Americans were prohibited from alcoholic beverages by peculiar laws preventing sale of liquor to them. These became redundant in 1920 when Prohibition was extended to all races. When it was repealed in 1933, the Native Americans continued to be under prohibition. This was lifted only in 1953.
The twentieth century was the most restraining ever on alcohol. World War I was a watershed in the history of alcohol. Under the pressure of extended military conflict, growing concerns about alcohol crystallized and many governments introduced regulations which were largely maintained and even intensified long after the conflict ended. The US prohibited alcohol for recreational consumption in 1920. For thirteen years, the people of America resorted to a slew of subterfuges to get hands on a bottle of it. Finally, convinced of its futility, the ban was lifted in 1933. This rethink was also due to the Depression because it made the state lose revenue on liquor sales and employment opportunities for the vast unemployed masses in the liquor industry. In Nazi Germany, thousands of individuals identified as alcoholics were sterilized because they believed that it will be passed on to descendants. This was the taste of eugenics vigorously followed by the Nazi party. However, with the failure of Prohibition everywhere, the moralistic approach to alcoholism was shunned and more practical organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous emerged in 1935.
Considering the subject matter, I had expected at least a part of the narrative in a lighter vein. This expectation was belied from the outset as Phillips vied for an academic thesis that may grant him a higher degree than to entertain the readers. This makes the text somewhat tedious. A lot of information is condensed into its pages that may be of better use to a student than a hobbyist reader. Leaving out Asia is an unpardonable lapse in a book of this nature. To compensate for this shortcoming in some measure, the author has included some very basic, fleeting references to China, but India is totally left out. As parts of history, quotes from books of the period are included, which adequately illustrates several aspects of the issue at hand. This book leaves out scientific matter altogether. One would be interested to know the mechanism of how alcohol affects the brain and nervous system, and also how the body finally disposes it off, thereby causing irreversible damage to the liver. The author should have devoted a chapter on this topic. As of now, readers sign off from the book with a feeling that consuming alcohol is a pleasurable experience and that's why puritans oppose it in every way they can. Its life-threatening aftereffects are not at all highlighted.
The book is recommended.
March 1, 2026
I wanted to like this more than I did, but it ended up being a frustrating read.
Early on, the author openly admits his bias: “I have tried for a global perspective in this book, but in doing so I have given priority to the story of the expansion of European alcohol…” He justifies this by saying it makes the book “thematically more coherent.” I don’t buy that. If you’re writing about alcohol as a global phenomenon, choosing to center Europe and treat Asia and the Pacific as peripheral isn’t coherence—it’s a limitation. The book could have been a genuinely comparative global history. Instead, it reinforces a Eurocentric narrative and shrugs it off as a structural choice.
On top of that, the level of detail often feels excessive and misplaced. We get granular statistics like: “In London hospitals… spending on alcohol declined by between 50 and 90 percent between 1884 and 1904,” followed by specific figures from Salisbury Infirmary—£302 in 1865, £142 in 1885, £18 in 1905. Or precise bar-hour regulations in 1915: “five and a half hours a day (noon to 2:30 pm and 6:00 to 9:00 pm), rather than the sixteen to nineteen and a half hours…” None of this is inherently uninteresting, but it piles up without adding much analytical weight. The book would have been stronger if it had zoomed out and delivered a tighter, truly global synthesis instead of bogging itself down in administrative trivia from Britain.
The most troubling part, though, is the health claim: “Current medical opinion suggests that drinking moderate amounts of wine… does protect many people against heart disease and some cancers… moderate alcohol consumption is a healthier option than abstaining.” Even by 2014, that position was already on shaky ground, built on observational studies with serious methodological flaws. The idea that moderate drinking is categorically “healthier” than abstaining has since been widely challenged and, in many cases, dismantled. Presenting it so confidently feels careless at best.
There’s solid research here, and the topic is inherently fascinating. But the Eurocentric framing, unnecessary minutiae, and outdated medical claims undercut what could have been a much sharper, more responsible book. For me, it’s a 2-star read: informative in places, but ultimately disappointing.
(Nate Tricowi)
Early on, the author openly admits his bias: “I have tried for a global perspective in this book, but in doing so I have given priority to the story of the expansion of European alcohol…” He justifies this by saying it makes the book “thematically more coherent.” I don’t buy that. If you’re writing about alcohol as a global phenomenon, choosing to center Europe and treat Asia and the Pacific as peripheral isn’t coherence—it’s a limitation. The book could have been a genuinely comparative global history. Instead, it reinforces a Eurocentric narrative and shrugs it off as a structural choice.
On top of that, the level of detail often feels excessive and misplaced. We get granular statistics like: “In London hospitals… spending on alcohol declined by between 50 and 90 percent between 1884 and 1904,” followed by specific figures from Salisbury Infirmary—£302 in 1865, £142 in 1885, £18 in 1905. Or precise bar-hour regulations in 1915: “five and a half hours a day (noon to 2:30 pm and 6:00 to 9:00 pm), rather than the sixteen to nineteen and a half hours…” None of this is inherently uninteresting, but it piles up without adding much analytical weight. The book would have been stronger if it had zoomed out and delivered a tighter, truly global synthesis instead of bogging itself down in administrative trivia from Britain.
The most troubling part, though, is the health claim: “Current medical opinion suggests that drinking moderate amounts of wine… does protect many people against heart disease and some cancers… moderate alcohol consumption is a healthier option than abstaining.” Even by 2014, that position was already on shaky ground, built on observational studies with serious methodological flaws. The idea that moderate drinking is categorically “healthier” than abstaining has since been widely challenged and, in many cases, dismantled. Presenting it so confidently feels careless at best.
There’s solid research here, and the topic is inherently fascinating. But the Eurocentric framing, unnecessary minutiae, and outdated medical claims undercut what could have been a much sharper, more responsible book. For me, it’s a 2-star read: informative in places, but ultimately disappointing.
(Nate Tricowi)
August 25, 2024
The thing with alcohol history is that you need fun stories and anecdotes to supplement the facts, otherwise it starts to read drier than the kind of history you're forced to learn at school. The beginning chapters were interesting, but the middle and end dragged on forever with endless statistics and details of peasant drinking habits. The prohibition section was also surprisingly brief, only touching on the topic in various countries, and lacked any of the hilarious and romantic stories often associated with the times.
Quite disappointing. Good thing I didn't actually buy the book.
Quite disappointing. Good thing I didn't actually buy the book.
May 8, 2022
3 stars as a neutral rating, leaning slightly towards ‘enjoyable’.
I read this as a textbook for a history class and was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually quite readable and wasn’t excessively dry in the way textbooks usually are. Interesting material and a nice little foray into a subject I hadn’t really considered that much.
I read this as a textbook for a history class and was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually quite readable and wasn’t excessively dry in the way textbooks usually are. Interesting material and a nice little foray into a subject I hadn’t really considered that much.
September 29, 2024
What a thorough, well researched book. It is so interesting and I especially liked Chapter 11 with the discussion of how alcohol showed the paternalism of colonialism. A great book--well done to the author
October 19, 2020
really interesting
December 28, 2024
Truly a masterwork. This book represents a mere fraction of what Phillips is capable of. History of Cats and History of Locks and Keys will eclipse this work, which already eclipses the entire historical corpus as we know it.
December 31, 2023
This was an okay survey of alcohol traditions. Yet, he contradicted himself, pretty arrogantly in the beginning. He made a statement about how the Indigenous of North America had no alcohol tradition prior to European contact. Yet, he went on later in the book to go into detail about pulque use of thousands of years in Mexico. Either he 1) doesn't consider Mexico a part of North America or 2) his anglocentric lens provided an atmosphere of confusion in his writing. Either way, as a Professor of History, he shouldn't cover the societies of this side of the world with such a blanket consideration. It feels arrogant and excludes millions of people from his theory. It's just no considerate. However, most of his focus is on modern and early Europe and wine. So, maybe his years of specializing on those topics caused him to miss out so abysmally of these other topics. Mexico is part of North America, Rod. That anglocentric lens is detrimental to your research.
November 8, 2016
A good enough read and pretty informative, but this is a bit scholarly (read: dry) for a crossover book with popular appeal. I'd like to see more about how Islamic societies went dry and the U.S. Prohibition section was a bit thin, but hey, I'm not the guy who wrote this book. Strengths are sections on Greece & Rome, ancient history, and how alcohol is linked to colonialism. Phillips takes a broad lens and seeks to write about alcohol on a global scale across more than a millennium, so there's a lot that gets left out or glossed over. Oh, and don't drink much while you're reading this because it's pretty technical writing and you'll miss a lot.
June 13, 2015
Highly readable, and useful, text on the cultural and material history of alcohol. Phillips uses an international and comparative frame here to good effect--something not usually done in histories of alcohol. I also greatly appreciated his focus on colonial and ethnic/racial histories around alcohol. Makes compelling argument against the idea that most earlier societies turned to alcohol because the water wasn't safe to drink (some did, but the assumption is far too widespread, he argues).
February 3, 2017
Beaucoup d'informations, mais qui au final nous apprend bien peu. J'ignore à quoi je m'attendais, mais j'ai trouvé ce livre un peu lourd et très académiques par le style d'écriture, ce qui fait qu'on accroche difficilement. Le livre est bien construit, les chapitres sont bien définits, le tout est rempli de référence, mais je n'ai simplement pas trouvé la matière et le contenu que j'espèrais y trouver. Sans être mauvais, ce livre ne m'a simplement pas plu!
May 28, 2015
This was a very dry read, with is bad for a book about alcohol. Lots of statistics and not a lot of passion. I'm embarrassed to say I wasn't able to finish it.
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