The English Pub

The idea that ale and beer are good, honest, nourishing and make men strong has been deeply ingrained in the English psyche for 2,000 years. This is the story of English drink and the places where it was consumed during those 2,000 years. The history of the alehouse and the pub was never an easy one. At one time or another the Church, war, Puritans, temperance crusaders and the taxman have tried to curb the boisterous habits of the English. All to no avail. Tracing the Englishman's drinking habitat through all its manifestations from rude hovel to alehouse, tavern, inn and beershop to pub, this book examines the various phases in its history, the golden days of the coaching inns to the darkest days of the gin fever.