Synopses & Reviews
A unique look at the meaning of the taste for wine in Britain, from the establishment of a Commonwealth in 1649 to the Commercial Treaty between Britain and France in 1860 - this book provides an extraordinary window into the politics and culture of England and Scotland just as they were becoming the powerful British state.
Synopsis
As a potent symbol of political legitimacy and a leading source of government revenue, wine in England and Scotland was a commodity like no other. This fascinating study shows how the taste for wine both reflected and constructed political power during the two most important centuries of modern British history. Wine-and how one consumed it-was never neutral; instead, it was inextricably linked to political party, social class, national identity, and gender. Wine was thus essential to creating modern Britain.
Synopsis
Introduction Part I: The Politicization of Wine Chapter 1: 'A health to our distressed king ' The Politics of Wine and Drinking in England, 1649-1681 Chapter 2: 'What's Become of Rich Burdeaux Claret, Who Knows?' Fraud and Popular Taste in Revolutionary England, 1678-1702 Chapter 3: 'The Cross Ran with Claret for the General Benefit' The Politics of Wine in Scotland, 1680s-1707 Part II: Claret Chapter 4: 'The Interest of the Nation lay against it so visibly' Claret and English National Interest, 1702-1714 Chapter 5: 'A good and most particular taste': Luxury Claret, Politeness, and Political Power England, c. 1700-1740 Chapter 6: 'Firm and Erect the Caledonian Stood': Scotland and Claret, 1707-c. 1770 Part III: Port Chapter 7: 'Port is all I pretend to': Port and the English Middle Ranks, 1714-1760s Chapter 8: 'Claret is the Liquor for Boys; Port for Men': How Port Became the 'Englishman's Wine', 1750s-c.1790s Chapter 9: 'That other liquor called port': Port and the Creation of British Identity in Scotland, 1770s-1815 Part IV: Drunkenness, Sobriety, and Civilization? Chapter 10: 'By G-d, he drinks like a man ': Manliness, Britishness and the Politics of Inebriety, c. 1780-c.1820 Chapter 11: 'Happily, inebriety is not the vice of the age': Sobriety, Respectability and Sherry, 1820s-1850s Chapter 12: 'Taste is not a mutable, but an immutable thing': British Civilization and the Great Nineteenth-Century Wine Debate
About the Author
Charles Ludington is a Teaching Assistant Professor of History at North Carolina State University, USA. His primary historical interests are in early modern British and Irish political and cultural history, European intellectual history, and the history of food and drink.
Table of Contents
Figures
Graphs
Tables
Preface: A Word or Two on Statistics and Measurements
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: THE POLITICIZATION OF WINE
'A Health to our Distressed King!'
The Politics of Wine and Drinking in England, 1649-1681
'What's Become of Rich Burdeaux Claret, Who Knows?'
Fraud and Popular Taste in Revolutionary England, 1678-1702
'The Cross Ran with Claret for the General Benefit'
The Politics of Wine in Scotland, 1680s-1707
PART II: CLARET
'The Interest of the Nation Lay Against it so Visibly'
Claret and English National Interest, 1702-1714
'A good and Most Particular Taste': Luxury Claret, Politeness, and Political Power England, c. 1700-1740
'Firm and Erect the Caledonian Stood': Scotland and Claret, 1707-c. 1770
PART III: PORT
'Port is all I pretend to': Port and the English Middle Ranks, 1714-1760s
'Claret is the Liquor for Boys; Port for Men': How Port Became the 'Englishman's Wine', 1750s-c.1790s
'That other liquor called port': Port and the Creation of British Identity in Scotland, 1770s-1815
PART IV: DRUNKENNESS, SOBRIETY, AND CIVILIZATION?
'By G-d, he drinks like a man!': Manliness, Britishness and the Politics of Inebriety, c. 1780-c.1820
'Happily, inebriety is not the vice of the age': Sobriety, Respectability and Sherry, 1820s-1850s
'Taste is not a mutable, but an immutable thing': British Civilization and the Great Nineteenth-Century Wine Debate
Appendix: Wine Duties
Endnotes
Bibliography