Promotional Information

Full of information and bristling with insights, this fine book on the many functions of alcohol and taverns in early America deserves a place on the bookshelf of every American historian. Working from a variety of sources, Salinger sweeps across all the mainland British colonies and shows the centrality of taverns in the conduct of colonial life. -- Gary B. Nash, UCLA

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Dutch and English Origins: For the "receiving and refreshment of travaillers and strangers"
Chapter 2. Inside the Tavern: "Knots of Men Rightly Sorted"
Chapter 3. Preventing Drunkenness and Keeping Good Order in the Seventeenth Century: "A Herd of Planters on the ground / O'er-whelmed with Punch, dead drunk we found"
Chapter 4. Eighteenth-Century Legislation and Prosecution: "Lest a Flood of Rum do Overwhelm all good Order among us"
Chapter 5. Licensing Criteria and Law in the Eighteenth Century: "Sobriety, honesty and discretion in the . . .masters of such houses"
Chapter 6. Too Many Taverns?: "Little better than Nurseries of Vice and Debauchery"
Chapter 7. The Tavern Degenerate: "Rendezvous of the very Dreggs of the People"
Conclusion
Notes
Index

About the Author

Sharon V. Salinger is chair of the Department of History at the University of California, Riverside.

Reviews

The most comprehensive survey to date of this curiously underinvestigated aspect of early American social life... [Contains] a wealth of illustrative and amusing anecdotes... Well researched and informative. -- Simon Middleton William and Mary Quarterly Offers a fresh perspective on one of the colonial period's most important social institutions and the drinking behavior that was central to it... Salinger's work is compelling throughout... A significant and satisfying book. -- Mark Edward Lender American Historical Review A richly detailed study that helps us understand popular and genteel culture in early America, the place of drink in everyday life, and the relationship between law and perceptions of disorderly behavior. -- Paul G. E. Clemens Journal of American History Taverns and Drinking in Early America pulls together the results of many other works focused more narrowly on particular colonies or regions and provides a much greater synthesis than we have ever enjoyed before... A well-written, very entertaining overview of an important subject. -- Daniel B. Thorp Virginia Magazine of History and Biography A thorough overview of this often overlooked institution in early America. -- George Brown North Carolina Historical Review Salinger gives us the best description yet available of the nature of tavern life and the efforts of colonial governments to manage it. -- Elaine Frantz Parsons Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Salinger's book offers the broadest study yet of the role of taverns in colonial life, and readers will find a good deal of useful information presented in clear and accessible prose. -- Matthew Mulcahy South Carolina Historical Magazine This important book offers the first recent attempt at a comparative synthesis combined with a general interpretation of tavern life. -- Richard P. Gildrie Journal of Southern History