400 Years of Drinking in America

De: Susan Cheever, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Susan Cheever

America’s relationship with alcohol is a fraught and inconsistent one. While many other nations and cultures have stable attitudes toward drinking, the American perspective on alcohol has been volatile, vacillating wildly from the gallon-a-day beer rations on the Mayflower to nationwide prohibition and back again. Why are Americans so ambivalent about alcohol? What can we learn about the past and the American character through these extreme fluctuations between alcoholism and sobriety across the centuries?

Join author Susan Cheever to explore 400 Years of Drinking in America. Across six lectures, Susan will trace the ever-changing attitudes toward alcohol in the United States, beginning with the colonists and tracing the patterns of habits and opinions to the rise of a thriving rehab industry in the 21st century. As you explore the ebb and flow of drinking in America, you’ll revisit moments that were deeply impacted by our complex relationship with alcohol.

The Pilgrims embraced beer while the Puritans wrestled with the sin of excessive drinking. The major wars fought on American soil were sometimes fueled as much by alcohol as by patriotism. Prohibition produced a generation of famously drunken writers and artists. From “the drunkest country in the world” to Alcoholics Anonymous, you’ll see what America’s love-hate relationship with booze can tell us about the growing pains of a young nation and the complexities of a diverse and ever-changing society.

©2025 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2025 Audible Originals, LLC.

Surprising Information

Well paced presentation. Up to date facts and logical analysis. Well researched and beautifully presented.

Loved it!

What a great lesson didn’t expect it to be that good and for somebody who is newly sober it was awesome just to see how alcohol has been in our lives creating havoc for 400 hundred years

Interesting review of drinking in America

I enjoyed this (mostly) judgment-free review of alcohol use and attitudes in American history.

Informative but Dull

This book kept me from drinking by putting me to sleep. I expected better from an Author. Very dry, no wit, excitement or pleasure.

Could have been interesting

The lecturer delivered her words in a near monotone, making it difficult to follow. This is probably why I was 2/3 through the book before I noticed her seeming anti-alcohol bias, calling pre-prohibition America a “nation of drunks,” praising anyone who spoke against drinking and elsewhere conflating drinking alcohol and alcoholism.

I usually enjoy The Great Courses, but this one was a waste of time.

Now We Know Why

I enjoyed this so much because It’s well researched Ed and you can see how many historians didn’t even factor this in and chose to create a narrative around here with him and bravery but the reality is much of it is fuelled by booze. I found this thoroughly entertaining and informative and it shows that what people do today that’s ridiculous they’ve been doing for centuries.

Did not expect a long Newsweek /Time magazine article

The first 1 1/2 chapters are not too bad but after that, the entertainment decreases and the sermonizing dramatically increases. The narration is flat and further detracts from the narrative

Let me read my book report

As a health professional and an avid audiobook listener, I found little pleasure or value in listening to what this “book” has to offer. Instead, it felt like a book report reading.

She lost my interest at Grant.

Short but interesting history lesson. I disagree with her assessment of President Grant. She writes of his heavy drinking during the war and gives an opinion that he was one of the worst presidents in history. If you read or listen to enough history, you'll find that Grant's drinking during the war wasn't that heavy. It was mostly a smear campaign by his political opponents. You can make an informed opinion if you read enough. Note that by 1900 he was considered one of the three greatest with Washington and Lincoln.

PSA for abstinence

This recording is one third American history (focused almost entirely on the colonial era and the prohibition era) one third memoir (focused exclusively on the author’s alcoholic father and his generation of 20th century writers and their relationship with alcohol) and one third examination of current, post covid 19, trends in alcohol consumption (with a resounding advocacy for a turn away from drinking and toward moderation). The author is a former alcoholic, formerly married to an alcoholic, and daughter of an alcoholic, and her work is centered in light of her personal experience. This is not a comprehensive analysis of the history of drinking in America.