Taverns and Drinking in Early America
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 MiddletonWilliam 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 LenderAmerican 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. ClemensJournal of American History)Taverns and Drinking in Early Americapulls 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. ThorpVirginia Magazine of History and Biography)A thorough overview of this often overlooked institution in early America.(George BrownNorth 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 ParsonsPennsylvania 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 MulcahySouth 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. GildrieJournal of Southern History)Full of information and bristling with insights, this fine book on the many functions of alcohol and taverns in early America deserves a place on the bookshelf of every American historian. Working from a variety of sources, Salinger sweeps across all the mainland British colonies and shows the centrality of taverns in the conduct of colonial life.(Gary B. Nash, UCLA)