Several historical encyclopedias look at all aspects of alcohol and temperance and, in one instance, other drugs too. They are Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia, edited by Jack S. Blocker, Jr., David M. Fahey (this author), and Ian R. Tyrrell; Alcohol in Popular Culture: An Encyclopedia, edited by Rachel Black; Alcohol and Drugs in North America: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Fahey and Jon S. Miller; The Sage Encyclopedia of Alcohol, edited by Scott C. Martin; and The Oxford Handbook of Global Drug History, from editor Paul Gootenberg. Due to the scarcity of English-language books on alcohol and drugs in Brazil, it is important to add The Oxford Encyclopedia of Brazilian History and Culture, edited Guillermo Palacios, which includes the article “Alcohol and Drugs in Brazil” by Henrique S. Carneiro.1
Courtwright’s Forces of Habit, mentioned previously, looks at alcohol and other drugs. Some books treat alcohol globally. These include two volumes by Rod Phillips: his magisterial Alcohol: A History and Wine: A Social and Cultural History of the Drink That Changed Our Lives. Less ambitious is Alcohol in World History, by Gina Hames. There is also Iain Gately’s Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol, which is a more popular treatment. Mark Lawrence Schrad’s pathbreaking study Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition provides a positive look at prohibition. Schrad’s earlier study, The Political Power of Bad Ideas, considers American prohibition within a global context. Global Anti-Vice Activism, 1890–1950, from editors Jessica Pliley, Robert Kramm, and Harald Fischer-Tiné takes a similarly global approach but examines alcohol alongside drugs and supposedly immoral behavior as well. For an analysis of modern (temporary) teetotalers, readers should peruse Julie Robert’s Alcohol, Binge Sobriety and Exemplary Abstinence.
Despite its comprehensive title, Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History, edited by Mack P. Holt, is a collection of essays on miscellaneous topics. More focused collections include Alcohol in the Early Modern World, from editor B. Ann Tlusty, and Alcohol in the Age of Industry, Empire, and War, from Deborah Toner. Focusing exclusively on spirits, The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, from editors David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum, addresses a less scholarly audience. Malcolm F. Purinton’s Globalization in a Glass, which discusses the rise of pilsner beer, is as much about globalization as about beer. Anthropologist Dwight B. Heath’s Drinking Occasions studies drinking behaviors in a global comparative perspective.
Drugs and addictive substances other than alcohol are sometimes treated to global or at least national histories. These include The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500–2000, by Richard Davenport-Hines; Cannabis: A History, by Martin Booth; Cannabis: Global Histories, from editors Lucas Richert and James H, Mills; Heroin: The Treatment of Addiction in Twentieth-Century Britain, by Alex Mold; Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia, edited by Jordan Goodman; For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History, by Sarah Rose; and Coffee: From Bean to Barista, by Robert W. Thurston. Comparative histories include Concepts of Addictive Substances and Behaviours across Time and Place, edited by Matilda Hellman, Virginia Berridge, Karen Duke, and Alex Mold, which looks at several European countries since the mid-nineteenth century.
A rare collection of documents that is useful for offering a truly expansive history of alcohol is Public Drinking in the Early Modern World: Voices from the Tavern, 1500–1800, edited by Thomas E. Brennan. Volume 1 covers France, volumes 2–3 treat the Holy Roman Empire, and volume 4 addresses the United States. Dan Malleck’s edited volume Drugs, Alcohol and Addiction in the Long Nineteenth Century is another useful collection compiling essential primary source documents from the era. For a more innovative and interdisciplinary approach, Mark Hailwood and Deborah Toner’s edited collection Biographies of Drink: A Case Study Approach to Our Historical Relationship with Alcohol provides fascinating case studies of individual drinks, presented as biographies.
Beyond these expansive histories, countless titles have been published that are more regionally or locally focused. The following sections consider important titles that treat the history of alcohol, and occasionally other drugs, by country or region.
1. Henrique S. Carneiro, “Alcohol and Drugs in Brazil,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Brazilian History and Culture, edited by Guillermo Palacios, Oxford, 2022.