Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940 (Gender Relations in the American Experience)

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Summary: Domesticating Discourses - Drink with regard to the Dames
Review: Catherine Murdock's book 'Domesticating Drink' is an intiguing and insightful look into the world of alcohol in the US between 1870 and the Second World War. In direct opposition to the many historians who claim that Prohibition was caused by the interests of big business, Murdock's study brings the locus closer to the home, a locality that she claims was responsible for the majority of change. Utilising cookbooks, etiquette guides and department store catalogues as primary sources, Murdock reveals the major part that alcohol played in the everyday life of the middle class woman in the time under study. Fascinating for it's attention to detail and it's myriad of sources, Murdock's treatment of the lead-up years to Prohibition, and the eventual breakdown of the Eighteenth Amendment makes for compelling reading. A great introduction into a hotly contested debate, and a welcome change from texts which ignore the role of women in the 'Noble Experiment'.