A unique look at the meaning of the taste for wine in Britain, from the establishment of a Commonwealth in 1649 to the Commercial Treaty between Britain and France in 1860 - this book provides an extraordinary window into the politics and culture of England and Scotland just as they were becoming the powerful British state.

Studies of the representation and understanding of drink and conviviality in diverse social contexts.

Why are we so ambivalent about alcohol? Are we torn between our love of a drink and the need to restrict, or even prohibit, alcohol? How did saloon culture arise in the United States? Why did wine become such a ubiquitous part of French culture? Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History examines these questions and many more as it considers how drink has evolved in its functions and uses from the late Middle Ages to the present day in the West. Alcohol has long played an important role in societies throughout history, and understanding its consumption can reveal a great deal about a culture. This book discusses a range of issues, including domestic versus recreational use, the history of alcoholism, and the relationship between alcohol and violence, religion, sexuality, and medicine. It looks at how certain forms of alcohol speak about class, gender and place. Drawing on examples from Europe, North America and Australia, this book provides an overview of the many roles alcohol has played over the past five centuries.

The explicit association between food and status was, academically speaking, first acknowledged on the food production level. He who owned the land, possessed the grain, he who owned the mill, had the flour, he who owned the oven, sold the bread. However, this conceptualization of power is dual; next to the obvious demonstration of power on the production level is the social significance of food consumption. Consumption of rich food”in terms of quantity and quality ”was, and is, a means to show one's social status and to create or uphold power. This book is concerned with the relationship between food consumption, status and power. Contributors address the 'old top' of society, and consider the way kings and queens, emperors and dukes, nobles and aristocrats wined and dined in the rapidly changing world of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where the bourgeoisie and even the 'common people' obtained political rights, economic influence, social importance and cultural authority. The book questions the role of food consumption at courts and the significance of particular foodstuffs or ways of cooking, deals with the number of guests and their place at the table, and studies the way the courts under consideration influenced one another. Topics include the role of sherry at the court of Queen Victoria as a means of representing middle class values, the use of the truffle as a promotional gift at the Savoy court, and the influence of European culture on banqueting at the Ottoman Palace. Together the volume addresses issues of social networks, prestige, politics and diplomacy, banquets and their design, income and spending, economic aims, taste and preference, cultural innovations, social hierarchies, material culture, and many more social and cultural issues. It will provide a useful entry into food history for scholars of court culture and anyone with an interest in modern cultural history.