Reading on Drinking on the Fourth of July

A reading list to explore drinking during the Founding Era

Happy Independence Day. I’m a fan of this particular holiday, as many of you know. It, then, is my pleasure to recommend the following alcohol and Independence-themed options for your perusal on this 247th commemoration of the country’s founding.

Drinking in Colonial America, published in the Colonial Williamsburg Journal back in 2007 is a wonderful survey of what drinking was like in the colonial era. Appearances are made by many of the most prominent founders, but the sense the reader is left with is that alcohol runs up and down the founding era.

The Whiskey Rebellion by William Hogeland—an excellent historian of the Founding Era—offers a complete history of the movement opposing taxes on Whiskey under Washington that led to an early concentration of federal power. Hogeland is an excellent writer.