
Intoxicating Pleasures
The Reinvention of Wine, Beer, and Whiskey after Prohibition
Lisa Jacobson(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 29. October 2024
Book
Hardback
398 pages
978-0-520-40109-9 (ISBN)
Description
In popular memory the repeal of US Prohibition in 1933 signaled alcohol's decisive triumph in a decades-long culture war. But as Lisa Jacobson reveals, alcohol's respectability and mass market success were neither sudden nor assured. It took a world war and a battalion of public relations experts and tastemakers to transform wine, beer, and whiskey into emblems of the American good life. Alcohol producers and their allies-a group that included scientists, trade associations, restaurateurs, home economists, cookbook authors, and New Deal planners-powered a publicity machine that linked alcohol to wartime food crusades and new ideas about the place of pleasure in modern American life. In this deeply researched and engagingly written book, Jacobson shows how the yearnings of ordinary consumers and military personnel shaped alcohol's cultural reinvention and put intoxicating pleasures at the center of broader debates about the rights and obligations of citizens.
Reviews / Votes
"An excellent addition to any library of distilled spirits, wine and beer." * Bourbon Veach * "Jacobson begins her important book by characterizing the changing public image of alcoholic beverages as a prime example of 'troublesome commodities' undergoing 'dramatic cultural reinventions'." * CHOICE *More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
28 b-w
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
771 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-40109-9 (9780520401099)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2024
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€28.99
Available for download
Person
Lisa Jacobson is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Raising Consumers: Children and the American Mass Market in the Early Twentieth Century.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE. CHARTING ALCOHOL'S PATH TO REDEMPTION
1 The Potent Politics of Weak Brews
2 A New Deal for Alcohol?
3 Fermented Beverages and the Gospel of Moderation
4 Spiritous Beverages and the Muddled Meanings of Moderation
PART TWO. THE POLITICS OF PLEASURE
5 Beer Goes to War
6 Whiskey, Weapons, and the Wartime State
7 Wine and Culinary Innovation on the Kitchen Front
8 Rank Privilege: The Politics of Intoxicating Pleasures in the US Military
Epilogue: The Power and Limits of Reinvention
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE. CHARTING ALCOHOL'S PATH TO REDEMPTION
1 The Potent Politics of Weak Brews
2 A New Deal for Alcohol?
3 Fermented Beverages and the Gospel of Moderation
4 Spiritous Beverages and the Muddled Meanings of Moderation
PART TWO. THE POLITICS OF PLEASURE
5 Beer Goes to War
6 Whiskey, Weapons, and the Wartime State
7 Wine and Culinary Innovation on the Kitchen Front
8 Rank Privilege: The Politics of Intoxicating Pleasures in the US Military
Epilogue: The Power and Limits of Reinvention
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index