{"id":27649,"date":"2026-05-13T14:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/?post_type=cu_description&p=27649"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:24:54","slug":"social-history-of-alcohol","status":"publish","type":"cu_description","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/description\/social-history-of-alcohol\/","title":{"rendered":"Social History of Alcohol\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

HIST 3109A:<\/strong>
Social History of Alcohol\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
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Winter Term 2027<\/strong>
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Professor Rod Phillips

<\/em><\/strong>Scope of the course<\/em>
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This course examines the long background to our complicated relationship with alcoholic beverages. Understanding the history of alcohol is especially important these days, as alcohol consumption has fallen to levels not seen in decades. We will examine this trend and put it into historical context.
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As we do, we\u2019ll see that alcohol embodies many paradoxes. For thousands of years, alcohol has been portrayed as socially beneficial and part of a healthy diet, yet socially disruptive and deadly. It contributes to the deaths of thousands of people every year and costs national economies billions of dollars, yet alcohol was defined as \u2018essential\u2019 almost everywhere during the Covid-19 restrictions, and alcohol stores remained open when many businesses were forced to close.
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"wine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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In this course, we will look at the social and cultural attributes of alcohol in Europe and North America (and elsewhere, to a lesser extent) over the long term, with an emphasis on the period from 1500 to the present. This period saw the transformation of alcoholic beverages (especially beer and wine) from intrinsic and valued elements of the daily diet of many (mainly male) adults to commodities of discretionary and leisure consumption. This radical shift, which took place in the 19th and 20th centuries, was fundamental to the social and cultural meanings of alcohol in our time, and it had important consequences for regulation and consumption.
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The key questions we discuss in relation to the history of alcohol are: Who drank what? Why did they drink it? Where and when did they drink it? Did they drink alone or in company? How much did they drink? Was their drinking regulated? How did they<\/em> understand, and how do we <\/em>interpret, their patterns of alcohol consumption? How did (and does) alcohol relate to other potentially addictive commodities, such as drugs and tobacco?
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"The\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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These questions direct us to look at the kinds of alcohol that were available (and thus engage with questions of production, distribution, marketing, and exchange) and the differences among them. Why was there a cultural hierarchy of alcoholic beverages, with wine ranked most highly almost everywhere, and why were some alcohols more widely consumed in some places and at some times than others? Why has alcohol generally been tolerated more than cocaine, opium, heroin, and marijuana?
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We also examine issues of power, race, gender, and class. How and why was the North American image of the \u2018drunk Indian\u2019 constructed? \u00a0Why have men been so anxious and negative about women\u2019s drinking?\u00a0 Why did many colonial administrations try to ban drinking among indigenous populations? Why did the middle and upper classes find working-class drinking so threatening? Questions such as these force us to examine the ways alcohol was integrated into broader social and cultural processes and the relationships of alcohol to power.
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Here we encounter the overarching dichotomous attitudes toward alcohol that were mentioned earlier. At the extremes, alcohol was variously considered \u2018a gift from God\u2019 and \u2018the Devil\u2019s brew\u2019. Alcohol encouraged sociability but could lead to social disruption. Alcohol consumption was widely regarded as necessary and beneficial \u2013 it provided hydration and was believed to have health benefits \u2013 but it was also associated with drunkenness, illness, death, crime, and sexual promiscuity.
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Wales
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These attitudes, particularly anxiety about \u2018excessive\u2019 consumption and (by the mid-1800s) the construction of \u2018alcoholism\u2019, led to a search for ways to define acceptable levels of alcohol consumption. They draw our attention to the regulation of alcohol by various social organizations and structures, including communities, churches, and states. These regulations included laws governing the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol, and extended to attempts to ban the production of alcohol (or certain alcohols).
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The targets of these policies included gin in eighteenth-century England, absinthe in early-twentieth century Europe, and all alcohol in the Muslim world and during Prohibition in Russia and the United States. Regulations also covered sites of drinking, such as pubs and taverns, which were often represented as locales of disorder, but that we can also see as spaces of (often gendered) sociability. Yet in most places, age-based regulations, such as minimum legal drinking ages, date back little more than a hundred years.
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In short, this course examines the relationships of alcohol to a wide range of issues \u2013 diet, health, the body, race, sexuality, religion, social control, gender, class, childhood, among them \u2013 and places them within the broader sweep of history.
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Course format<\/em>
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This is a lecture course that meets in person for three hours, once a week.
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Coursework<\/em>
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There are three components to the coursework: a reading response, an essay, and a final (take-home) exam.\u00a0 The reading response is a reading of one chapter of the textbook. All the material needed for the other assignments is available on-line.
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Textbook<\/em><\/strong>
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Rod Phillips,\u00a0Alcohol: A History<\/em>\u00a0(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014; paperback edition, 2019). Hardback, paperback, and e-book editions are available from on-line sellers, and an audiobook is available from audible.com. (All editions have the same text.)\u00a0 The book is also available in French, Chinese, and Turkish.
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Questions?<\/em>
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Please feel free to contact me at:\u00a0roderick.phillips@carleton.ca<\/a>
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