You have not been recognized as a subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History online. About 183 words from this article are provided below; about 477 words remain.
 		 
If you are a individual subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History, you may:
• login here if you have already registered for online access.
• Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.

If you are not a subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History, you can:
• subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of Indiana Magazine of History.

Instititutions can:
• Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.
| Book Review | Indiana Magazine of History, 102.1 | The History Cooperative
102.1  
Journals link Search link Partners link Information link
March, 2006
Previous
Next
Indiana Magazine of History

Table of Contents
List journal issues
Home
Get a printer-friendly version of this page
 

Reviews

The Spirits of America
A Social History of Alcohol

By Eric Burns
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. Pp. 336. Notes, select bibliography, index. $29.00.)

Eric Burns has given us an enjoyable but rather enigmatic book. It is beautifully written and it purports to address a serious subject—America's long and frequently controversial experience with beverage alcohol. But for all of the promise of its title, the book has a hard time defining itself. It says little about changing American drinking patterns, and even less about the cultural implications of various drinking behaviors. Instead, the narrative quickly turns to the familiar topic of the rise and fall of the temperance movement and the experiment of national Prohibition. This is a well-traveled road, and Burns has little new to add, even as popular histories go (John Kobler's Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition [1973] covered much the same ground a generation ago). Thus we are left with an engaging text that devotes most of its attention to what we already know and much less to matters that could benefit from closer scrutiny. . . .
There are about 477 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.