Why We Drank a Shocking Amount in 1830

History of alcohol in America. People drank liquor back in the day because drinking water wasn’t safe, and alcohol was cheap - that's the basic premise. But there's so much more to America's complicated relationship with booze. And while writing this history of alcohol in the US, I couldn't help but think of modern issues of overconsumption, which I address towards the end.

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0:00 How much?
2:25 What?
2:53 Where?
3:15 When?
4:42 Milk
5:47 Who?
6:52 Temperance
9:10 Prohibition
9:48 Writer's Block

Sources
1. Spirited Republic from National Archives
2. The time when Americans drank all day long. Jane O'Brien BBC News. 2015
3. JSTOR Daily. A Brief History of U.S. Drinking. 2016.
4. Alcohol in America. W. J. Rorabaugh. 1991
5. The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, By W.J. Rorabaugh
6. PBS. Roots of Prohibition.
7. "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" by Daniel Okrent
8. Democracy in America. By Alexis De Tocqueville. 1838.
9. History of Maine (8) dot gov
10. Temperance and Prohibition Era Propaganda: A Study in Rhetoric BY LEAH RAE BERK
11. Ohio Central History. Temperance Movement.
12. BU dot edu “POV: The 100th Anniversary of…”
13. NIH. “Apparent per capita ethanol consumption, United States, 1850–2016”
14. Gallup.2021. U.S. Alcohol Consumption on Low End of Recent Readings.
15. “Deaths caused by alcohol use…” Deidre McPhillips, CNN

Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images.

[iammrbeat]

My father suffered from alcoholism. But I am addicted to caffeine. I can function with caffeine. Most of us indeed are addicted to a drug, and yes, sugar is a drug. The sooner we all admit that, the better. Sugar is killing us, too. That doesn't mean we make it illegal, but we can certainly regulate it. In fact, we can legalize and regulate all drugs. Great video as always!

[skipdavis]

my own family reflects this: one grandmother found alcohol abhorrent, and that whole side of the family does. my other grandmother was a flapper that went to the speakeasy with the chief of police. she was the singer! my grandmothers were cordial, but distant. i never ever one time in my life, ever saw them in the same room together. that probably happened at my parents wedding, but there are no photos of that. that is how divisive this was for that generation.

[kyle]

It’s amazing the people functioned so well on such a lack of water and intake of alcohol

[gregsmith]

A food addiction is tougher than most…. Maybe all… because you can’t stop eating. I quit smoking a while back, and there’s just no way that happens if I had to smoke 3 cigarettes a day to survive.

[davestratton]

The personal message at the end resonates with me. Thanks for sharing. Your writing is always fascinating. Here’s to you.

[pittbullking]

I like the way you tied it all together. I remember reading about a Southern Baptist convention at a hotel where they did not make use of the hotel bar because drinking is contrary to their religious convictions. However, the writer wryly observed they made frequent use of the buffet and the desert bar at the hotel restaurant.

[IronCascade]

I vividly remember the moment in my life, when sitting in a bar with friends, and eating a late night hamburger with curly fries, I realized in a moment of reflection that I enjoyed eating more than I enjoyed alcohol. All the hangovers and fuzzy memories of making a fool of myself in my twenties binge drinking, just couldn't compare to that delicious greasy burger and fries.

[MrJayrock]

You could pretty much walk into a store and buy cocaine until the 1930’s, so we weren’t only drunk in the 19th century we were high AF too. They even combined the two and called it Laudenum which you could buy over the counter.

[kkkk-wgje]

I’m from Wisconsin, we still drink heavily here.

[holeeshi]

partly I think what drove down alcohol is coffee and sugar. alcohol might be the quickest way to get a "sugar boost" since during 1700-1800s coffee and processed sugar isn't as readily available, thus alcohol is probably treated like an energy drink as well. as coffee and sugar, or even better, sugary caffinated beverage becomes more available, people starts to realize they do a FAR better job to give you the morning energy, thus the morning and day drinking to keep you "up" is basically replaced with coffee/tea/cola/energy drink.

[tygonmaster]

My father, who is 76 now mind you, drank...a lot when he was younger. He was a vietnam vet and all the traditional stereotypes apply. He drank. He cheated. He smoked himself half to death (though not enough to actually kill him clearly). And he generally is just kind of an asshole. My mom still reminds me of his nickname, Outback Jack because he drank a shitload of Jack Daniels. Too much alcohol ruins your life. It ruins your relationships. Just always be careful with alcohol. Not gonna say don't drink. I would be a hypocrite if I did, but just always, you know, moderate yourself. Don't drink on days you work. Don't drink when you have something important to do. Don't down a whole bottle. Try to be decent with it, you know?

[TheTephin]

What a wonderful and beautiful bit of personal touch and anecdote at the end. I feel your pain on overeating as a coping mechanism and the shame associated with that. I’m glad you’ve been able to work on that it appears! Myself: I still have a good amount of work to do on self control.

[Mason-djpo]

I personally think it has a lot to do with filling empty spaces. Be it boredom, loss, pain, suffering... It's like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound. As someone who's genetically predisposed to addiction, I've struggled with almost everything one can be addicted to, and I've found that the busier I am, the less time I have to actually think about life, the better I do.

[RecipesOfHope]

Process addictions are so hard and complicated because they are 1 of our needs built into us. We need food to survive so we can't go abstinent, but food also gives us that "quick fix." There is a great counselor named Tim Fletcher who has a complex trauma and addiction channel that has so many great videos that speak to these issues. The end of this video really spoke to me, thank you sir.

[jackcandy]

As a heavy drinker whenever I find myself trying to quit again I realize how voracious my appetite becomes. Cutting off a significant portion of my calories (tho not good calories) I’m just about constantly hungry.

[josephsalomone]

During my most alcoholic phase, I would go through about 1 gallon of 150 proof absinthe every week. And now I drink significantly less, and I still probably drink more than 2.3 gallons a year.

[michaelfoster]

As a recovering alcoholic, I really appreciate your nuanced, relatable take. As an armchair historian I think it's also super important to reshape the narrative around American prohibition--we tend to miss so much about what they clumsily tried to do (but you nailed it). Thanks for doing the work.

[J_Stronsky]

If you haven't read it already I'd highly recommend "Drink; a cultural history of Alcohol" by Iain Gately.
Good read and it also goes a long way to show that North Americans by no means have a monopoly on alcoholism, as interesting as the American story is. Human evolution is an incomplete process and we have long struggled with the things that can addict, for which we have yet to develop good defences.

I think the better throughline here, the thing I kept thinking as I listened to this video; is to imagine the extent to which these things have held us back as a species. Just think of all those babies fed booze before they even had a chance to develop, not just the cycle of addiction that would develop but also the damage done to that child's future ability to learn and grow.
It also reminded me of similarly damaging forces that we had less control over, like the use of leaded fuel throughout the 20th century; it's the same deal, exposure to something damages not just the individuals health but also their ability to think, reason and exercise control over their lives.. In such a society, even if one doesn't die early because of these things, they will still be held back in some way.

I just get caught up thinking about all the human potential lost by these negative forces.
Like, how many good ideas and good deeds never got to be, because the person who would've made them happen, never got the chance because of something as horrible and avoidable as foetal alcohol syndrome? Not to mention the inter-generational nature of it all.

This also highlights the importance of the real positive changes in history, seemingly little things, often overlooked but so significant in their effect on us - like the pasteurisation of milk as you said.
It's so hard to tell a story about history which does the importance these small & slow moving developments justice. They simply take place over a time and scale that we are ill equipped to think and in ways that aren't necessarily visible within the historical sources we have. You really have to read between the lines and imagine - but I think this video and your multiple attempts at digging at something more meaningful than a simple list of facts from history, is absolutely a step in the right direction.

And just as an aside; don't ever worry about what you look like on camera (easier said than done I know) but I for one, watch your vids to hear what you have to say, not to see what you look like, because what you have to say has always been more than worthwhile.
Keep up the good work.

[frostyflakkes]

My little brother was an alcoholic for about a year when he was in High School. Completely ruined his social life, got kicked out of school and fired from his job. I literally can’t drink with out feeling guilty. So I just don’t.

[LRJS]

There were plenty of sources for good clean water in early America, especially in the country side where the vast majority of people lived. People drank because they liked it not because they “needed to because the water was bad”. They knew for ever that you could boil water to make it good.