num_pages: 352
description: Even before James Squire set sail as a convict aboard the First Fleet liquor was playing its part in shaping the colony-to-be. Who was entitled to it and who wasn't; who could make and sell it and who couldn't; and how the young and thirsty colony could make itself self-sufficient in booze. As the colony grew rum became both a currency and a source of political strength and instability culminating in the Rum Rebellion in 1808 and what one observer said was a society of 'drunkenness gaming and debaucheries'.Now with GROG writer Tom Gilling presents a compelling bottled history of the first three decades of European settlement: how the men and women of New South Wales transformed the colony from a squalid and starving convict settlement into a prosperous trading town with fashionable Georgian street names and a monumental two-storey hospital built by private contractors in exchange for a monopoly on rum.GROG is a colourful account of the unique beginnings of a new nation and a unique insight into the history of Australia's long love affair with the hard stuff.
language: English
title: Grog : a bottled history of Australia's first 30 years
publisher: Hatchette Australia