Human beings have been drinking fermented alcoholic beverages since prehistoric times.
By the 18th century, potent distilled liquor was cheap and readily available, and white, male North American colonists were among the heaviest drinkers the world had ever seen.
After US independence, religious and civic groups began to campaign for temperance, meaning more moderate use of alcohol. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the push was on for full Prohibition.
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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
What surprised me is that we have spent a HUGE amount of time on post-war US, Russia and Germany, but almost no time at all on UK and France. Both countries are very important as they are both colonial empires, and dissolution of these empires is one of the great stories of 20th century.. No less important is Britain’s loosing of financial and industrial pre-eminence and the transformation of its very rigit class/caste system.
A very good book on post-ww1 britain is “..england’s crisis..” by andre siegfried, first published in 1931. It describes the malaise of that country very accurately.