Alcohol A History by Rod Phillips PAPERBACK 9781469652177

AlcoholA History\nAuthor(s): Rod Phillips\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: The University of North Carolina Press, United States\nImprint: The University of North Carolina Press\nISBN-13: 9781469652177, 978-1469652177\nSynopsis\nWhether as wine, beer, or spirits, alcohol has had a constant and often controversial role in social life. In his innovative book on the attitudes toward and consumption of alcohol, Rod Phillips surveys a 9,000-year cultural and economic history, uncovering the tensions between alcoholic drinks as healthy staples of daily diets and as objects of social, political, and religious anxiety. In the urban centers of Europe and America, where it was seen as healthier than untreated water, alcohol gained a foothold as the drink of choice, but it has been more regulated by governmental and religious authorities more than any other commodity. As a potential source of social disruption, alcohol created volatile boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable consumption and bro.