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The intersection of alcohol and conspiracy
19 March 2011
I'm looking forward to reading Christine Sismondo's new book, An American Walks Into a Bar, when it is released this summer. It's about the social history of drink and the role pubs play in both history and culture (predominantly American, but she does give nod to the tavern in other cultures).
There aren't a lot of good, recent social histories of alcohol I've some across - Sismondo's early book, Mondo Cocktail - had elements of it (along with some witty and entertaining travelogue and commentary). Andrew Barr's third book, Drink: A Social History of America* treads some of the same ground (it follows his earlier book, Drink: A Social History which has a European focus).
Some of the better books on tequila, wine or other drinks dedicate a chapter or two on it. But I haven't found a lot of good social histories on our 10,000-year love affair with alcohol and how it has shaped our cultures, history and religion.** Many historians seem somewhat embarrassed by the relationship. Writers tend to get all puritanical and politically correct when they bring alcohol into the picture.
Christine posted a comment on Facebook earlier this month about William Lyon MacKenzie's birthday. His rebellion - the Upper Canada Rebellion - ended at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern.
That comment got me thinking about the role of taverns in similar historical events worldwide.
I suspect many plots to take over the world have been hatched in pubs. Hitler's failed putsch started in a Munich beer hall. Guy Fawkes and his conspirators laid their plot at the Duck and Drake, an inn in London's Strand district, in May 1604. Karl Marx planned his proletarian revolution drinking at the Museum Tavern, in London. Legend has it that Lenin and Stalin met in the Crown and Anchor pub, when they were both in London, in 1905.
Some of these sites - like Montgomery's Tavern - are heritage sites. Others have been torn down, redeveloped or simply forgotten. Christine sometimes comments on other pub-related and alcohol-related history on her blog.
A few UK sites are listed here on the Guardian's site. When I visit the UK - maybe later this year - I might try to visit a few of them. For this side of the Atlantic, Boston has a few of its own historic bars.
The 1741 conspiracy of slaves began with meetings in a New York tavern.
Taverns and conspiracies seem to date back as far as written history. The 3,700-year-old Babylonian Code of Hammurabi warns, "If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death." Obviously taverns and plotters were commonplace enough for the king to enact a low about them.
It might be an interesting book for Christine to follow up with, on the intersection of conspiracy and alcohol worldwide.***
~~~~~
* Barr's third book is another I want to read. He comments that attitudes towards alcohol in America are quite different from those in Europe (Canada, as it usually is, sits somewhere in between these two). As a British journalist, Barr's views seem somewhat parochial. He attempts "to understand the history of the United States through its attitudes to liquor and its changing tastes in drink." But he's generally a witty writer, so it could be fun.
** The earliest written reference to alcohol seems to be the Sumerian Hymn to Ninkasi, dating from the 19th century BCE. By this time, beer seems to have been a part of the institutional life of the Sumerians, and the techniques for making it already well established and refined.
*** And locally. A lot of chatter about unseating the former mayor was made in local taverns last term, and although it could hardly be considered a conspiracy, I suspect several decisions to run for council last election were made there. There continues to be talk about local political issues in these places, albeit less of the revolutionary nature than the "council is so boring these days" kind.
There aren't a lot of good, recent social histories of alcohol I've some across - Sismondo's early book, Mondo Cocktail - had elements of it (along with some witty and entertaining travelogue and commentary). Andrew Barr's third book, Drink: A Social History of America* treads some of the same ground (it follows his earlier book, Drink: A Social History which has a European focus).
Some of the better books on tequila, wine or other drinks dedicate a chapter or two on it. But I haven't found a lot of good social histories on our 10,000-year love affair with alcohol and how it has shaped our cultures, history and religion.** Many historians seem somewhat embarrassed by the relationship. Writers tend to get all puritanical and politically correct when they bring alcohol into the picture.
Christine posted a comment on Facebook earlier this month about William Lyon MacKenzie's birthday. His rebellion - the Upper Canada Rebellion - ended at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern.
That comment got me thinking about the role of taverns in similar historical events worldwide.
Some of these sites - like Montgomery's Tavern - are heritage sites. Others have been torn down, redeveloped or simply forgotten. Christine sometimes comments on other pub-related and alcohol-related history on her blog.
A few UK sites are listed here on the Guardian's site. When I visit the UK - maybe later this year - I might try to visit a few of them. For this side of the Atlantic, Boston has a few of its own historic bars.
The 1741 conspiracy of slaves began with meetings in a New York tavern.
Taverns and conspiracies seem to date back as far as written history. The 3,700-year-old Babylonian Code of Hammurabi warns, "If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death." Obviously taverns and plotters were commonplace enough for the king to enact a low about them.
It might be an interesting book for Christine to follow up with, on the intersection of conspiracy and alcohol worldwide.***
~~~~~
* Barr's third book is another I want to read. He comments that attitudes towards alcohol in America are quite different from those in Europe (Canada, as it usually is, sits somewhere in between these two). As a British journalist, Barr's views seem somewhat parochial. He attempts "to understand the history of the United States through its attitudes to liquor and its changing tastes in drink." But he's generally a witty writer, so it could be fun.
** The earliest written reference to alcohol seems to be the Sumerian Hymn to Ninkasi, dating from the 19th century BCE. By this time, beer seems to have been a part of the institutional life of the Sumerians, and the techniques for making it already well established and refined.
*** And locally. A lot of chatter about unseating the former mayor was made in local taverns last term, and although it could hardly be considered a conspiracy, I suspect several decisions to run for council last election were made there. There continues to be talk about local political issues in these places, albeit less of the revolutionary nature than the "council is so boring these days" kind.
