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| 50-5804 | TP527 | 2012-10134 CIP | | Social & Behavioral Sciences History, Geography & Area Studies North America | | Smith, Andrew F. Drinking history: fifteen turning points in the making of American beverages. Columbia, 2013. 319p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780231151160, $29.95; ISBN 9780231530996 e-book, contact publisher for price. Reviewed in 2013jun CHOICE. | | Historian Smith (New School) views American history through the lens at the bottom of a drinking glass, with 15 essays on topics as diverse as Colonial rum and tea, soda-fountain soft beverages, milk, and Starbucks coffee. Earlier chapters concentrate on trade and politics; those in the middle deal with social movements such as temperance and the birth of consumer society; and the later stories focus on key movements and individuals in commercial history. All of the main beverages covered in the chapters have now been the subject of one or more book-length histories, so well-read food scholars are unlikely to find much new material here. The chapters do give a good sampling of how studying food can illuminate history, however, particularly the way that morality and concerns about health have been important drivers of consumer culture for centuries. This book could be very useful in a course on the history of American food, though for this purpose it will be up to the teacher to develop integrating themes and broader implications. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduate students at all levels as well as general readers. — R. R. Wilk, Indiana University |
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