Accommodating the Republic : taverns in the early United States / Kirsten E. Wood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wood, Kirsten E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bars (Drinking establishments)--United States--History--19th century.

Bars (Drinking establishments).

Bars (Drinking establishments)--Economic aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Infrastructure (Economics)--United States.

Infrastructure (Economics).

United States--Social life and customs--19th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

xv, 334 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Taverns in the early United States

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2023]

Summary:

"People have gathered in public drinking places to drink, relax, socialize, and do business for hundreds of years. For just as long, critics have described taverns and similar drinking establishments as sources of individual ruin and public disorder. Examining these dynamics as Americans surged westward in the early nineteenth century, Kirsten E. Wood argues that entrepreneurial, improvement-minded men integrated many village and town taverns into the nation's rapidly developing transportation network and used tavern spaces and networks to raise capital, promote innovative businesses, practice genteel sociability, and rally support for favored causes-often while drinking the staggering amounts of alcohol for which the period is justly famous. White men's unrivaled freedom to use taverns for their own pursuits of happiness gave everyday significance to citizenship in the early republic. Yet white men did not have taverns to themselves. Sharing tavern spaces with other Americans intensified white men's struggles to define what, and for whom, taverns should be. At the same time, temperance and other reform movements increasingly divided white men along lines of party, conscience, and class. In both conflicts, some improvement-minded white men found common cause with middle-class white women and Black activists, who had their own stake in rethinking taverns and citizenship"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I. Mobility. Chapter one. Wayside taverns : the transportation revolution and American self-fashioning ; Chapter two. Fitted up in a superior style : tavern improvements

Part II. Enterprise. Chapter three. A statement of your account : the circulation of goods and credit ; Chapter four. Convenient to business : entrepreneurial networking and innovation

Part III. Representation. Chapter five. Tavern legalities : orderly freedoms and republican accommodations ; Chapter six. Collecting the sentiments of the sovereign people : taverns and collective politics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [269]-317) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781469675534

1469675536

9781469675541

1469675544

OCLC:

1374818480

Publisher Number:

40032104653