Alcohol
Subtitle: a history
By: Rod Phillips
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 370
ISBN-13: 9781469617602
Subjects: Drinking of alcoholic beverages; Alcohol; Alcoholic beverage industry; History
Description: In this 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 more 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.