Description
Book SynopsisChallenging the prevailing view that taverns tended to break down class and gender differences, Salinger persuasively argues they did not signal social change so much as buttress custom and encourage exclusion.
Trade ReviewThe 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 2004 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 2004 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 2003 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 2003 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 2004
