The Alcoholic Republic, The: An American Tradition by W. J. Rorabaugh
Americans of all ages and walks of life tipple their way
through the period of the Revolutionary War through the 1820s.
Details: 302 pgs © 1979 Read: 08/14/06
Source: Checked out of Broward Library 362.29RO
Why Selected: The Alcoholic Republic was cited in The
Omnivore’s Dilemma and was too intriguing to resist. Happily, my local library
had it in the stacks.
Chock full of unexpected oddities such as: men, women, and
children were drinking alcoholic beverages at all hours, on all occasions, at
home, at work, at play, at the polls, before taking the pulpit. This was the
promise of the book and a promise kept. Starting off strong, the book just kept
getting more and more interesting, exploring the whys and wherefores, the
background of the situation. Why at that time and at that place did drinking
take such a firm hold on the population as a whole (post revolution through
1820s) and why did it so suddenly, a permanently end?
Notes and excerpts from text:
Page 18 “The steamboat was conceived at a time when drinking
was central to American society. Boat designs that stressed bars conformed to a
cultural imperative.”
Page 25 At the beginning of the 18C, alcohol was considered
healthful.
Page 29 1722-1738 the price of rum plummeted “at that low
price a common laborer could afford to get drunk very day.”
Page 37: The Potent Enemies of America. “liberty viewed in a
new light, not as a mans freedom to drink unlimited quantities of alcohol but
as a man’s freedom to be his own master…the exercise of self-control,
moderation, and reason.”
Page 38 Methodists opposed to alcohol as both a break with
tradition and rationalism.
Page 39 Scientific approach to medicine.
Pg 40 Rush Inquiry.
Page 52 Hamilton’s Whiskey Tax.
Page 55 1794 Whiskey Rebellion.
Page 64: The availability of inexpensive distilled spirits
led to an increase in consumption. Pt 64: rum as foundation of barter trade.
Page 69 decline of rum and the rise of cheap, plentiful
whiskey. Scottish and Irish brought distillery expertise.
Page 74 Early 19C improvements in stills. Distilleries
provided a vital economic function, transforming fragile, perishable, bulky,
surplus fruit and grain into non-perishable spirits, easily stored, shipped, or
sold.
Page 82 In the 1820s a poorly aid farm laborer earned $1 per
day and gallon of whiskey retailed at 25¢ to 50¢.
Page 84. Canals stimulant to commerce… some people found it
cheaper to buy certain imported goods than to produce their own, and others
discovered that they could now sell abroad products that had once been
unsalable”
Page 88 “the early 19C enthusiasm for distilling had shown a
lack of economic imagination, a kind of sale and mindless attachment to custom,
and the inability of Americans to envision a better use for their agricultural
surplus. Spirits surplus unleashed powerful influences for change.
The plethora of whiskey resulting from overabundant agricultural surplus made
rapid industrialization possible…and the glut of distilled spirits preceded
industrialization in England, Prussian, Sweden and Russia.
Page 90 the temperance movement worked in part because
stilling transformed from a “local commodity to the manufactured product of an
anonymous, remote entrepreneur.” Page 95 Whiskey as part of diet. Water: river
water, sediment. Wells were expensive and rain water uncertain. Of course in
winter, it froze.
Page 97
In 1842 Croton Aqueduct was opened and New Yorkers began drinking more water.
During the first third of the century, water was often condemned on the ground
that it lacked food value and did not aid digestion…many: believed water was
unfit for human consumption on for horses and pigs. Pg 98: milk preferred to
water if available.
Page 109 Lager Beer 1840s.
Page 111 Apple surplus went into cider production.
Page 125 Americans preferred cider and whiskey to beer
because of higher alcoholic content. Beer was too weak for American tastes. The
taste for strong drink was no doubt enhanced by the monotony of the American
diet dominated by corn.
Page 113: The typical adult American ate a pound of bread,
often made of cornmeal, and a pound of meat, usually salt pork (fed on corn.)
Page116 Lack of refrigeration, silage, lack of ovens.
Page 117 boil or fry “fried foods became the American
gastronomic specialty and the country’s breakfasts, dinners, and suppers were
soon floating in extraordinary rivers of butter and oceans of grease.”
Page 118 prpensity of rapid eating.
Page 122 Author: Americans had psychological needs better
met by alcohol than food.
Page 25 Between 1790 and 1830 almost every aspect of
American life undersent alteration, in many cases, startling upheaval…the
groups most severely affected by change were also the groups most given to
heavy drinking.
Page 126 Rapid population growth, doubling very 23 years.
“Between 1790 ad 1801 it was necessary to bring in to production almost as many
acres as had been planted in the preceding 2 centuries.” Farm hands lost hope
of becoming farm owners. Urban development.
Page 129 Cities surffered from inept government, poor
sanitation, chatoci social conditions, and a sense of alienation.”
Page 131 Skilled craftsmen adversely affected by
industrialization. Overall reduction in potential for upward mobility.
Page 134 Cotton did not improve the lot of slaves, but it
did greatly increase the number of rich planters. By 1830 thousands of newly
minted overlords…had unprecedented leisure and wealth, their backgrounds
providing them with little training in ways of spending time and money. They
had no knowledge of the arts and sciences, no enthusiasm for manufacturing and
technology, no customary pattern of spending, no cultural refinement or
well-developed taste…the social life of this nouveau riche aristocracy was
built on display, conspicuous consumption and crude materialism’
Page 136 decline of established churches.
Page 137: Methodists.
Page 138: colleges: students and contempt for “outmoded
curriculums, old’fashioned teachers and predeliciton for training clergymen.”
Unprecedented lusty drinking.
Page 144 Sam Patch unsuccessful suicide who became a
sideshow jumping off things. Page 150 dram drinking versus group binges at
barbecues, Independence Day, elections. Page 168: binge drinking and
compartmentalization.
Page 177 Laudanum; opium dissolved in alcohol.
Page 180 low achievement motivation occurs in cultures where
people do not believe in social stratification…and with economic stagnation
Page187: 1820s per capita consumption of alcohol climbed,
leveled off and plummeted.
Page 195 temperance offered a 2nd independence a being born
again.
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