The history of drink: A review, social, scientific, and political

About this book

This work is a sweeping survey of humanity’s relationship with intoxicating beverages, framed as a “popular essay” that attempts to trace drinking habits from pre‑historic times to the late nineteenth‑century. The author begins by noting the scarcity of comprehensive studies on the subject, positioning his own volume as a broader, more up‑to‑date complement to the earlier 1824 treatise by Samuel Morewood. He then outlines a chronological tour that moves from early human traces and the customs of “cradle of the human race” societies, through the Greeks, Romans, and Germans, to detailed chapters on England, Sweden, and America, before concluding with discussions of temperance, intoxication, and political implications. The preface makes clear that the author does not claim exhaustive authority; instead, he offers a superficial yet earnest sketch, acknowledging both the limits of his sources and his own temperance‑leaning bias.

The prose reflects the Victorian scholarly tone of the 1870s, mixing earnest moral argument with a catalog‑like enumeration of cultures and epochs. Its language is formal but accessible, interweaving quotations from contemporary scientists such as Darwin and social reformers like Dr. B. W. Richardson. Readers with an interest in the history of alcohol, the temperance movement, or the cultural anthropology of drinking, especially those who enjoy nineteenth‑century academic narratives that blend moral commentary with extensive historical detail, will find this book a valuable, if occasionally uneven, resource.

Opening lines

No apology would be necessary for the publication of a good and comprehensive work on the history of intoxicating drinks; for, strange to say, although the subjects of drinking and drunkenness have attracted the attention of writers in every age, there appears to have been only one treatise which has attempted to deal with the whole question in a systematic and historical manner, and that was “An Essay on the Inventions and Customs of both Ancients and Moderns in the use of Inebriating Liquors” (&c.), “by Samuel Morewood, Surveyor of Excise.” This book, containing considerably less matter than the present volume, was originally published by Longmans in 1824, and in 1838 it was republished under a somewhat changed title by William Curry, jun., Dublin, with Longmans and others. …

Keep reading free · chapter 1 needs no account