Drinking Boston: A History of the City and Its Spirits

From the revolutionary camaraderie of the Colonial taverns to the saloons of the turn of the century; from Prohibition—a period rife with class politics, social reform, and opportunism—to a trail of nightclub neon so vast, it was called the "Conga Belt", Drinking Boston is a tribute to the fascinating role alcohol has played throughout the city s history. Teasing out this curious relationship—in particular, the clash between a constrained Puritanism (lingering like a hangover today) and a raucous revolutionary spirit—Drinking Boston introduces the cast of characters who championed or vilified drinking and the places where they imbibed—legally and otherwise. Visiting some of Boston s most storied neighborhood bars, this pub crawl ends with Boston s distinct recipe for the current cocktail renaissance sweeping the nation. Stephanie Schorow serves up a remarkable cocktail representative of Boston s intoxicating story: its spirit of invention, its hardscrabble politics, its mythology, and the city s never-ending battle between personal freedom and civic reform.