-
Drinking in America
- Our Secret History
- Narrated by: Barbara Benjamin Creel
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
In Drinking in America, best-selling author Susan Cheever chronicles our national love affair with liquor, taking a long, thoughtful look at the way alcohol has changed our nation's history. This is the often-overlooked story of how alcohol has shaped American events and the American character from the 17th to the 20th century.
Seen through the lens of alcoholism, American history takes on a vibrancy and a tragedy missing from many earlier accounts. From the drunkenness of the Pilgrims to Prohibition hijinks, drinking has always been a cherished American custom: a way to celebrate and a way to grieve and a way to take the edge off. At many pivotal points in our history - the illegal Mayflower landing at Cape Cod, the enslavement of African Americans, the McCarthy witch hunts, and the Kennedy assassination, to name only a few - alcohol has acted as a catalyst.
Some nations drink more than we do, some drink less, but no other nation has been the drunkest in the world, as America was in the 1830s, only to outlaw drinking entirely a hundred years later. Both a lively history and an unflinching cultural investigation, Drinking in America unveils the volatile ambivalence within one nation's tumultuous affair with alcohol.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition
- The Official "Big Book" from Alcoholic Anonymous
- By: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc.
- Narrated by: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc.
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known as the "Big Book", the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of people worldwide get and stay sober since the first edition appeared in 1939. Opening chapters articulate A.A.’s program of recovery from alcoholism - the original Twelve Steps - and recount the personal histories of A.A.'s co-founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
-
-
Wonderful Narration!!
- By Andy Berry on 04-13-21
-
Last Call
- The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
- By: Daniel Okrent
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages. Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces, including the growing political power of the women’s suffrage movement and the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities.
-
-
Very Thorough Historical Review
- By Pierre on 11-12-12
By: Daniel Okrent
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Island at the Center of the World
- The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.
-
-
Incomplete history, but fun. Performance is poor.
- By Matthew on 11-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
-
Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
-
-
A Walk through the Valley of the Shadow
- By George on 11-02-14
By: Atul Gawande
-
Smoke Signals
- A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational, and Scientific
- By: Martin A. Lee
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin A. Lee traces the dramatic social history of marijuana, from its origins to its emergence in the 1960s as a defining force in a culture war that has never ceased. Lee describes how the illicit marijuana subculture overcame government opposition and morphed into a dynamic, multibillion-dollar industry. Colorful, illuminating, and at times irreverent, this is a fascinating listen for recreational users and patients, students and doctors, musicians and accountants, Baby Boomers and their kids, and anyone who has ever wondered about the secret life of this ubiquitous herb.
-
-
A hard book for me to rate
- By Blake on 05-08-13
By: Martin A. Lee
-
Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition
- The Official "Big Book" from Alcoholic Anonymous
- By: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc.
- Narrated by: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc.
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known as the "Big Book", the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of people worldwide get and stay sober since the first edition appeared in 1939. Opening chapters articulate A.A.’s program of recovery from alcoholism - the original Twelve Steps - and recount the personal histories of A.A.'s co-founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
-
-
Wonderful Narration!!
- By Andy Berry on 04-13-21
-
Last Call
- The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
- By: Daniel Okrent
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages. Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces, including the growing political power of the women’s suffrage movement and the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities.
-
-
Very Thorough Historical Review
- By Pierre on 11-12-12
By: Daniel Okrent
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Island at the Center of the World
- The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.
-
-
Incomplete history, but fun. Performance is poor.
- By Matthew on 11-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
-
Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
-
-
A Walk through the Valley of the Shadow
- By George on 11-02-14
By: Atul Gawande
-
Smoke Signals
- A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational, and Scientific
- By: Martin A. Lee
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin A. Lee traces the dramatic social history of marijuana, from its origins to its emergence in the 1960s as a defining force in a culture war that has never ceased. Lee describes how the illicit marijuana subculture overcame government opposition and morphed into a dynamic, multibillion-dollar industry. Colorful, illuminating, and at times irreverent, this is a fascinating listen for recreational users and patients, students and doctors, musicians and accountants, Baby Boomers and their kids, and anyone who has ever wondered about the secret life of this ubiquitous herb.
-
-
A hard book for me to rate
- By Blake on 05-08-13
By: Martin A. Lee
-
Someone Knows My Name
- By: Lawrence Hill
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aminata Diallo is the beguiling heroine of Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name. In it, Hill exquisitely imagines the tale of an 18th-century woman's life, spanning six decades and three continents. The fascinating story that Hill tells is a work of the soul and the imagination. Aminata is a character who will stir listeners, from her kidnapping from Africa through her journeys back and forth across the ocean.
-
-
Rich in history and moral messages
- By Ariela on 10-14-09
By: Lawrence Hill
-
Savage Continent
- Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
- By: Keith Lowe
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the 20th century's most iconic moments. It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours. These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten. Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war.
-
-
Better in print?
- By Rodney on 10-10-12
By: Keith Lowe
-
Blackout
- Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
- By: Sarah Hepola
- Narrated by: Sarah Hepola
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure - the sober life she never wanted. For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was "the gasoline of all adventure". She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. But there was a price. Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth.
-
-
Blackout: A Knockout
- By W Perry Hall on 07-17-15
By: Sarah Hepola
-
Network of Lies
- The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for America
- By: Brian Stelter
- Narrated by: Brian Stelter
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Network of Lies, New York Times bestselling author Brian Stelter answers these questions by weaving together private texts, unpublished emails, depositions, and other primary sources to tell the chilling story of Trump’s alleged conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, and the right-wing media’s mission to put him back in office in 2024.
-
-
Eye opener .
- By catherine weaver on 11-21-23
By: Brian Stelter
-
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
-
-
Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
-
Drink
- The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol
- By: Ann Dowsett Johnston
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, award-winning journalist Anne Dowsett Johnston combines in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, and delivers a groundbreaking examination of a shocking yet little recognized epidemic threatening society today: the precipitous rise in risky drinking among women and girls. With the feminist revolution, women have closed the gender gap in their professional and educational lives. They have also achieved equality with men in more troubling areas as well.
-
-
Much needed woman's recovery story
- By Cellowoman on 03-21-17
-
Demonic Foes
- My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal
- By: Richard Gallagher
- Narrated by: Kevin Collins
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Successful New York psychiatrist Richard Gallagher was skeptical yet intrigued when a hard-nosed, no-nonsense Catholic priest asked him to examine a woman for a possible exorcism. Meeting her, Gallagher was astonished. The woman’s behavior defied logic. This remarkable case was the first of many that Gallagher would encounter. Sought after today by leaders of all faiths—ministers, priests, rabbis and imams, Gallagher has spent a quarter-century studying demonic activity and exorcisms throughout history and has witnessed more cases than any other psychiatrist in the world today.
-
-
An Exceptional Book for Reference and Debate
- By SecretOktober on 10-15-20
-
Revolution Song
- A Story of American Freedom
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America's founding principles being debated today as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. Drawing on new sources, he weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution.
-
-
An inspiring book
- By Frank on 08-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
-
Drunks
- An American History
- By: Christopher M. Finan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, millions of Americans are struggling with alcoholism, but millions are also in long-term recovery. Alcoholics Anonymous and a growing number of recovery organizations are providing support for alcoholics who will face the danger of relapse for the rest of their lives. We have finally come to understand alcoholism as a treatable illness rather than a moral failure. Today's advocates can draw inspiration from the victories of sober drunks throughout American history.
-
-
Full of facts and great stories
- By megan Windeler on 11-19-17
-
The Templar Legacy
- A Novel
- By: Steve Berry
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts—and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.
-
-
Dan Brown... eat your heart out
- By Bonnie-Ann on 07-22-12
By: Steve Berry
-
Drink
- A Cultural History of Alcohol
- By: Iain Gately
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drink investigates the history of this Jekyll and Hyde of fluids, tracing mankind's love/hate relationship with alcohol from ancient Egypt to present day. Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the War of Independence, Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, slave trade, and failed experiment of national Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world's most famous drinks - and drinkers. Packed with trivia and colorful characters, Drink amounts to an intoxicating history of the world.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Ben on 02-23-22
By: Iain Gately
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
Related to this topic
-
Revolution Song
- A Story of American Freedom
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America's founding principles being debated today as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. Drawing on new sources, he weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution.
-
-
An inspiring book
- By Frank on 08-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
Bury the Chains
- Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 1787, 12 men - a printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, and others united by their hatred of slavery - came together in a London printing shop and began a remarkable grass-roots movement, battling for the rights of people on another continent. Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement's leaders pioneered a variety of techniques that have been adopted by citizens' movements ever since, from consumer boycotts to wall posters and lapel buttons to celebrity endorsements.
-
-
Great Eye-Opener
- By Carl Thompson on 01-06-19
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Forged in Crisis
- The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times
- By: Nancy Koehn
- Narrated by: Nancy Koehn
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights that will be of interest to a wide range of listeners - including those in government, business, education, and the arts - Forged in Crisis, by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, President Abraham Lincoln, legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.
-
-
Authors are not always the best narrators
- By experimenting on 12-14-17
By: Nancy Koehn
-
The Imperial Cruise
- A Secret History of Empire and War
- By: James Bradley
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous 21 year old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name.
-
-
Over the Top - Why did I waste my time?
- By Kent on 01-25-10
By: James Bradley
-
No More Lies
- By: Dick Gregory
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, during the Black Power Movement, iconoclast Dick Gregory challenged one of the foundations of America itself - its history, which had been written almost exclusively from the white male perspective. In No More Lies, this true trailblazer gave voice to African Americans, speaking their truth about the past and race relations in the United States. No More Lies offers this incomparable satirist’s intellectual, conspiratorial, and humorous spin on the facts.
-
-
My Hertiages
- By n/a on 11-25-22
By: Dick Gregory
-
Revolution Song
- A Story of American Freedom
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America's founding principles being debated today as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. Drawing on new sources, he weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution.
-
-
An inspiring book
- By Frank on 08-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
Bury the Chains
- Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In early 1787, 12 men - a printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, and others united by their hatred of slavery - came together in a London printing shop and began a remarkable grass-roots movement, battling for the rights of people on another continent. Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement's leaders pioneered a variety of techniques that have been adopted by citizens' movements ever since, from consumer boycotts to wall posters and lapel buttons to celebrity endorsements.
-
-
Great Eye-Opener
- By Carl Thompson on 01-06-19
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Forged in Crisis
- The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times
- By: Nancy Koehn
- Narrated by: Nancy Koehn
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights that will be of interest to a wide range of listeners - including those in government, business, education, and the arts - Forged in Crisis, by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, President Abraham Lincoln, legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.
-
-
Authors are not always the best narrators
- By experimenting on 12-14-17
By: Nancy Koehn
-
The Imperial Cruise
- A Secret History of Empire and War
- By: James Bradley
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous 21 year old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name.
-
-
Over the Top - Why did I waste my time?
- By Kent on 01-25-10
By: James Bradley
-
No More Lies
- By: Dick Gregory
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, during the Black Power Movement, iconoclast Dick Gregory challenged one of the foundations of America itself - its history, which had been written almost exclusively from the white male perspective. In No More Lies, this true trailblazer gave voice to African Americans, speaking their truth about the past and race relations in the United States. No More Lies offers this incomparable satirist’s intellectual, conspiratorial, and humorous spin on the facts.
-
-
My Hertiages
- By n/a on 11-25-22
By: Dick Gregory
-
To America
- Personal Reflections of an Historian
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reflecting on his career, Stephen E. Ambrose - one of the country's most influential historians - confronts America's failures and struggles as he explores both its moral and pragmatic triumphs. To America celebrates the men and women who invented the United States and made it exceptional. Taking a few swings at today's political correctness, Ambrose grapples with the country's historic sins of racism, its neglect and ill treatment of Native Americans, and its tragic errors.
-
-
Wow!
- By Coach Nathan L. on 02-10-16
-
Rush
- Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father
- By: Stephen Fried
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time he was 30, Dr. Benjamin Rush had signed the Declaration of Independence, edited Common Sense, toured Europe as Benjamin Franklin’s protégé, and become John Adams’s confidant, and was soon to be appointed Washington’s surgeon general. And as with the greatest Revolutionary minds, Rush was only just beginning his role in 1776 in the American experiment.
-
-
The narration problem can be corrected
- By Sandra L. on 09-27-18
By: Stephen Fried
-
City of Sedition
- The History of New York City During the Civil War
- By: John Strausbaugh
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No city was more of a help to Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort - or more of a hindrance. No city raised more men, money, and matériel for the war, and no city raised more hell against it. It was a city of patriots, war heroes, and abolitionists but simultaneously a city of antiwar protest, draft resistance, and sedition. Without his New York supporters, it's highly unlikely Lincoln would have made it to the White House.
-
-
Read twice...post election antidote
- By Pianoman on 12-02-16
By: John Strausbaugh
-
David Crockett: The Lion of the West
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett", and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories.
-
-
Author is very bias.
- By Michael on 05-31-12
By: Michael Wallis
-
Our Man in Charleston
- Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South
- By: Christopher Dickey
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unlikely man at the roiling center of this intrigue was Robert Bunch, an American-born Englishman who had maneuvered his way to the position of British consul in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew to loathe slavery and the righteousness of its practitioners. Bunch used his unique perch and boundless ambition to become a key player, sending reams of dispatches to the home government and eventually becoming the Crown's best secret source on the Confederacy.
-
-
Not a spy novel
- By Michael Battle on 06-21-16
-
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South (and Why it Will Rise Again)
- By: Clint Johnson
- Narrated by: Dianna Dorman
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its emphasis on traditional values, family, faith, military service, good manners, small government, and independent-minded people, the South should certainly rise again. Far from being the backwater of prejudice and ignorance that the liberal media would have you believe, the South has always been the center of American culture.
-
-
Tubby Bearded Guy reference earned an extra star
- By Ed on 09-30-17
By: Clint Johnson
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The First Kennedys
- The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty
- By: Neal Thompson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Their Irish ancestry was a hallmark of the Kennedys’ initial political profile, as JFK leveraged his working-class roots to connect with blue-collar voters. Today, we remember this iconic American family as the vanguard of wealth, power, and style rather than as the descendants of poor immigrants. Here at last, we meet the first American Kennedys, Patrick and Bridget, who arrived as many thousands of others did following the Great Famine—penniless and hungry. Less than a decade after their marriage in Boston, Patrick’s sudden death left Bridget to raise their children single-handedly.
-
-
Fascinating and inspiring
- By tejanomusic on 04-03-22
By: Neal Thompson
-
The President and the Assassin
- McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin's bullet shattered the nation's confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century.
-
-
An Ideal History Book for the Audio Format
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-30-11
By: Scott Miller
-
The War Lovers
- Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Although there was no evidence that the Spanish were responsible, yellow newspapers such as William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal whipped Americans into frenzy by claiming that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship. Soon after, the blandly handsome and easily influenced President McKinley declared war, sending troops not only to Cuba but also to the Philippines.
-
-
A Rather Poor History
- By Paul C. White on 08-17-10
By: Evan Thomas
-
New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
-
-
My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
-
Last Call
- The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
- By: Daniel Okrent
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages. Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces, including the growing political power of the women’s suffrage movement and the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities.
-
-
Very Thorough Historical Review
- By Pierre on 11-12-12
By: Daniel Okrent
What listeners say about Drinking in America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Powell
- 04-01-16
very well written but focuses on well known people
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
..Secret history of celebs. My fault, I think I was looking for something about bootleggers rather than a history of the drinkers who are famous. I consider then to be a small effect of drinking in America.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John
- 12-14-15
A Nation of Drunks-But Hey, Whats Wrong WithThat
Would you try another book from Susan Cheever and/or Barbara Benjamin Creel?
Maybe after a couple of drinks.
Would you recommend Drinking in America to your friends? Why or why not?
I would recommend it, but it is a topic that may not appeal to most readers though.
What about Barbara Benjamin Creel’s performance did you like?
Kind of neutral. Nothing stood out as either great or poor.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
This book is not suited to be a movie. Mostly American history based around our obsession with alcohol.
Any additional comments?
A little dry for my taste. No pun intended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Story
- Gary
- 09-04-16
Some what liberal interpretation of history.
Taking drinking in context to historical events, this author opens reader's eyes to a part of history not taught in schools...but it should be.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nick Phillips
- 04-27-19
Informative
Good listen. The book is full of information and from a perspective that seems seldom seen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lauren
- 06-18-23
Informative!
It was a neat little book on a circumscribed topic. I’m glad I read it. I wish it didn’t skip around in time, though.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C. Trunek
- 05-16-17
Enlightening
I was unaware of the part drinking has played in the history of the United States - I am not sure it was as influential as the author declares, but I learned much from her account.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peter Gracia
- 07-16-19
meh
A 30 minute YouTube video would've accomplished the same thing.
Last Call is much better on this topic
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jonny
- 03-09-23
A story about drinking and politics not America
I had really high hopes for this book but the author is clearly liberal and pushes that narrative the entire book. I thought the very beginning was ok but as it progressed it’s just clearly stories about political leaders who she did not like being drunk. Everybody knows politicians get drunk behind closed doors on both sides of the isle, these are stories of one side of that. A lot of what is in the book is also just speculation and not based on hard facts. All in all I would not recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dawson Roy Lewis III
- 10-26-15
Revisionist history at its worst
Would you try another book from Susan Cheever and/or Barbara Benjamin Creel?
I applaud Cheever for overcoming her addiction; however, she is clearly not an historian. She approaches American history and specifically watershed moments from the perspective of alcoholism. She proposes heavy-handed reinterpretations of these events while offering scarcely more evidence than the fact that brandy was in the room. She implies, for example, that the Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed in Plymouth rather than their planned destination (near present-day NYC) because were ill-prepared for the New World because they were drunk, not because the waters around Long Island were dangerous, nor because the pilgrims were city-dwelling shop owners who wouldn't have known the first thing about building homes and infrastructure from scratch. The book is riddled with this kind of sloppy research. Very disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pred2Win
- 11-24-15
Don't bother-
I thought I was getting a history of drinking. while there were some interesting facts, what this book does is allow the author to speculate and draw loose conclusions on why certain events happened. She all but blames the assassination of President Kennedy on the drinking of Secret Service men. She also uses this book as a forum for railing on conservatives as well as Nixon and Bush. I was very disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!