000 03275cam a22003373u 4500
001 77418
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610134807.0
006 m
007 cr n
008 260607r20251878utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
010 _a15010471
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aHV
100 1 _aSamuelson, James,
_d1829-1919
245 1 4 _aThe history of drink
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
500 _aRelease date is 2025-12-07
508 _aTim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
520 _a"The history of drink" by James Samuelson is a social, scientific, and historical review written in the late 19th century. It examines how intoxicating beverages arose, spread, and shaped morals, religion, law, and public health from prehistory to modern nations, arguing that excess has wrought great harm while avoiding rigid partisanship. The opening of the work lays out its purpose: to fill a gap since Morewood’s early study, sketch a broad, impartial history of intoxicants, and inform present temperance debates without bowing to any “ism.” A detailed contents page maps a global survey. The first chapter disputes the claim that there is no instinct for stimulants, citing children, domesticated animals, Darwin’s observations of monkeys and baboons, natural fermentation, and widespread native drinks (palm-wine, koumiss), then contrasts “savage” drunkenness (African festivals, Laplanders) with moderating effects of culture, and notes prehistoric European lake-dwellers grew grapes and barley. The next chapter turns to China: ancient classics show ritual drinking endorsed but drunkenness condemned (an imperial edict threatens severe penalties), poems depict court and peasant feasts, Buddhism later enjoins abstinence for monks, and in modern times rice spirits are common yet public drunkenness is rare, with opium and poverty altering the pattern. The third chapter treats India: Vedic ritual centers on intoxicating soma, hymns revel in a drunken Indra, the laity favor the stronger sura, and later law (Manu) fiercely denounces drink even as many liquors persist; today most Indians are temperate except at certain festivals (e.g., Holi) and among lower castes using arrack or bhang. The fourth chapter contrasts Zoroastrian disapproval of drunkenness with Persian practice ancient and modern, and shows that despite Islamic prohibitions many still drink privately; the fifth chapter opens by challenging total-abstinence readings of Hebrew Scripture, arguing the texts promote temperance rather than an absolute ban. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cLondon: Trübner & co., 1878
653 _aTemperance -- History
653 _aDrinking of alcoholic beverages -- History
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/historydrinkare00samugoog
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77418
999 _c118138
_d118138