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.

The sparkling wines of California rival the best French Champagnes today, but their place at our tables came about through careful craftsmanship that began more than a century ago. The predecessor of today’s California bubbly was Eclipse Champagne, the first commercially successful California sparkling wine, produced by Arpad Haraszthy in the mid- to late nineteenth century. In A Toast to Eclipse, Brian McGinty offers a definitive history of the wine, exploring California’s winemaking past and two of the people who put the state’s varietal wines on the map: Arpad and his father Agoston Haraszthy, the legendary “father of California viticulture.” Inspired by his father’s dream of making California one of the world’s great viticultural regions, Arpad Haraszthy (1840–1900) pursued that goal at a time when the best grapes for making California wine had yet to be discovered, when the best locations for vineyards had not yet been established, and when the public could hardly believe that good wine could be made in a country overrun with gold miners and desperados. As a young man, Arpad spent two years in the Champagne country of northeastern France, studying the classic methods of French sparkling wine manufacture, before bringing his knowledge home to California. As McGinty shows, the story of the award-winning wine Haraszthy created is also the story of San Francisco during its heyday as the largest, most dynamic city in the American West. McGinty reveals new information about California varietals and winemaking districts, and probes the controversy about whether Agoston Haraszthy introduced the Zinfandel grape to the Golden State. Aficionados of wine and of California history will find this narrative insightful and refreshing, and all readers will gain an appreciation for Arpad Haraszthy, Eclipse, and the delicate process of making a wine sparkle.

Alcohol consumption goes to the very roots of nearly all human societies. Different countries and regions have become associated with different sorts of alcohol, for instance, the “beer culture” of Germany, the “wine culture” of France, Japan and saki, Russia and vodka, the Caribbean and rum, or the “moonshine culture” of Appalachia. Wine is used in religious rituals, and toasts are used to seal business deals or to celebrate marriages and state dinners. However, our relation with alcohol is one of love/hate. We also regulate it and tax it, we pass laws about when and where it’s appropriate, we crack down severely on drunk driving, and the United States and other countries tried the failed “Noble Experiment” of Prohibition. While there are many encyclopedias on alcohol, nearly all approach it as a substance of abuse, taking a clinical, medical perspective (alcohol, alcoholism, and treatment). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol examines the history of alcohol worldwide and goes beyond the historical lens to examine alcohol as a cultural and social phenomenon, as well—both for good and for ill—from the earliest days of humankind.

The development of an American wine ethos. The history of wine is a tale of capitalist production and consumer experience, and early Americans embraced the idea of having their own wine culture. But many began to believe that excessive alcohol consumption had become a moral, ethical, economic, political, social, and health conundrum. The result was a national on-again, off-again relationship with the concept of an American wine culture. Citizens struggled to build a wine culture patterned after their diasporic European custom of wine as a moderating beverage that was part of a healthy diet. Yet, as America grew, untold attempts to create a wine culture failed due to climate, pests, diseases, wars, and depressions, resulting in some people considering the nation an alcoholic republic. Thus began an anti-alcohol culture war aimed at restricting or prohibiting alcoholic beverages. With the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition), a culture war started between wet and dry proponents. After the repeal of Prohibition, the decimated wine industry responded by forming the Wine Institute to rebrand wine’s role in American society, after which neoprohibitionists attempted to restrict alcohol availability and consumption. To confront these aggressive actions, the Wine Institute hired politically trained John A. De Luca to navigate the new attacks and pushed for rebranding wine as a cultural spirit with health benefits.

A commercial pilot regularly flies the air routes out of "naughty" Singapore; and all it's fleshpots; to all the islands around the Pacific. On one such trip, The Japanese invade the island he has landed at, and his aircraft is destroyed.He escapes the Japanese, but his co-pilot and best friend who owns the airfield/ village store/ bar restaurant are killed.After finding a small fishing boat to escape in; he has to knock out a nun who wishes to stay and be a martyr to death for her church. So over the next 4 months on the fishing boat, she is livid that this stupid pilot has foiled her destiny of martyrdom. After many adventures they fall in love and are rescued by a US Navy submarine from Brisbane Australia. They marry and start a new airline in Australia naming their aircraft after saints.

Richard Mendelson brings together his expertise as both a Napa Valley lawyer and a winemaker into this accessible overview of American wine law from colonial times to the present. It is a story of fits and starts that provides a fascinating chronicle of the history of wine in the United States told through the lens of the law. From the country's early support for wine as a beverage to the moral and religious fervor that resulted in Prohibition and to the governmental controls that followed Repeal, Mendelson takes us to the present day—and to the emergence of an authentic and significant wine culture. He explains how current laws shape the wine industry in such areas as pricing and taxation, licensing, appellations, health claims and warnings, labeling, and domestic and international commerce. As he explores these and other legal and policy issues, Mendelson lucidly highlights the concerns that have made wine alternatively the demon or the darling of American society—and at the same time illuminates the ways in which lives and livelihoods are affected by the rise and fall of social movements.

This encyclopedia presents the many sides of America's ongoing relationship with alcohol, examining the political history, pivotal events, popular culture, and advances in technology that have affected its consumption. From the constant advertising messages from beer, wine and liquor manufacturers to parties, weddings, and other social gatherings where alcohol is served to after-work happy hours with coworkers, the influence and presence of alcohol are inescapable in the United States. According to a government source, 50 percent of American adults identified themselves as "regular drinkers" (having at least 12 drinks in the past year). This encyclopedia presents an overview of the entire history of alcohol in America from the first colonies to present day, focusing on the often-marginalized and pop culture aspects of alcohol use and misuse. Entries illuminate topics such as the favorite alcoholic beverages in America; how they are manufactured; the role of alcohol in everyday life, special events, and across history; the impacts of alcohol consumption on society and health; and much more. Connections and influences from outside the United States are also considered for some topics.