"A fascinating look at the place and function of alcohol throughout American history...[Cheever] offers a colorful portrait of a society that, like her own family, has been indelibly shaped by its drinking habits. An intelligently argued study of our country's 'passionate connection to drinking.'"—Kirkus Reviews

"Susan Cheever offers a humane but unsentimental view of our nation's inebriated past in DRINKING IN AMERICA. To excuse the pun, it's an addictive read full of wit and verve, revealing the deep influence of alcohol on many of our country's most significant moments, from the landing at Plymouth Harbour, to the Kennedy Assassination and Watergate. This is terrific social history but not as it's usually told, and all the better for it."—Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire (winner of the Whitbread) and A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

"Cheever's central observation is fascinating...The melting pot, it seems, was also a mixing bowl."—Publishers Weekly

"Insightful...well-researched and well-developed...An engrossing, in-depth examination of the profound ways alcohol and drinking have shaped and contributed to American history."—Shelf Awareness

"Cheever is full of such shocking and often delightful revelations of a history we never learned in school."—Newsday

"I can't stop raving (soberly!) about Susan Cheever's new book... It is both enlightening and frightening. A brilliant and important addition to our understanding of what goes wrong and what can continue to go wrong in a world dominated by the most deadly legal liquid ever invented."—Judy Collins

"Compelling...[a] brisk drinker's companion to US history, which runs a black light over the archives to ask: who was loaded, and why did it matter?... It's the fourth of Wilson's famous 12 steps that made it common practice for sober folk to dig into their own pasts in order to articulate the role of alcohol - to create a 'searching and fearless moral inventory' - and with DRINKING IN AMERICA, Cheever submits the US to a similar investigation. Along the way, we see a country struggling to negotiate its freedoms, nurtured by alcohol and undone by it as well....This approach can be illuminating, turning those sepia-toned historical figures in wigs into uncertain young men with tankards of rum in their hands."—Los Angeles Review of Books

"Cheever serves up a sober cocktail of American history...offers up sideways views that are intriguing."—Associated Press

"Full of compelling ideas...Cheever is smart, perceptive and disciplined...Her Nixon chapter in particular is alternately horrifying and delightful, and paints a compelling picture of the monstrous complexity of a 'great man.'"—Buffalo News

"Vivid...some of the book's most affecting moments arrive when Cheever discusses her family's drinking problems. "—The San Francisco Chronicle

"Full of fascinating details...this book is an important and highly entertaining step in the right direction."—Women's Voices for Change

"Cheever addresses serious subjects with casual and at times humorous prose, making this book surprisingly fun to read. You won't find this booze-filled version of American history in any textbooks, but as with any good barroom conversation, you'll learn just as much."—Kansas City Star

"A unique cultural tour."—BookTrib

"Packed with the liquor-soaked legacy of our country...[Cheever] presents a chronicle of the United States that has, to my knowledge, never been attempted. And it is a riveting, revisionist take on so many great events and people...fascinating, unusual history."—The Palm Beach Post

"Goes down like a smooth glass of wine after a long day...Whether you're a drinker or a teetotaler, if you like a wee nip of history, then here's the book you want."—The Bookworm Sez

"A highly readable, in-your-face look at not only the destructive power of alcohol in America, but the strange way it shaped our history."—San Antonio Express-News

"If you're looking for a sobering introduction to drunk history, this is the book for you."—Toronto Star

"At once fascinating and slightly disturbing."—The Oklahoman

"DRINKING IN AMERICA at times has many shocking revelations of the role alcohol has played in our country that is a great addition to the legends of this nation."—Midwest Book Review

"This is Drunk History, but thoroughly researched and soberly elucidated."—The Portland Mercury

"Cheever lays bare something many of us know intimately: 'alcoholism is a family disease,' she writes, and its roots in the American family run deep."—Boston Globe

"[A] cockeyed retelling of the American story."—The Week

"A riveting, revisionist take on so many great events and people... fascinating, unusual history... her research is spot on."—The New York Social Diary

"A chronicle of America's past that is full of details they never told you back in fifth grade."—Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Informative, entertaining and scary...this book brings history to life and pours it a tall one."—High Times

10/01/2015
The premise of Cheever's (American Bloomsbury) latest is compelling—how has America's on-again, off-again obsession with alcohol affected some of the major turning points in the nation's history? And it's a fun journey to take with Cheever, whose breezy writing style is entertaining and informed by her own publicly acknowledged struggles with addiction and a famous alcoholic parent. However, it may be a tad too breezy. Cheever often asserts rather than persuades; her repeated speculations about the motivations of people long dead do not make an entirely convincing argument. Determined to see U.S. history through the lens of drink, that is indeed what she finds. Still, there are some real surprises here, including indications that John F. Kennedy's secret service detail had been drinking heavily the night before the assassination, which may have affected their reaction time, and that an important reason the pilgrims stayed in Plymouth, rather than venturing down to Virginia as planned, was the fear that the Mayflower would run out of beer on the journey home. VERDICT For those looking for an enjoyable survey of the subject but who are willing to overlook inconsistencies in the author's argument.—Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

2015-06-28
A distinguished biographer and cultural historian offers a fascinating look at the place and function of alcohol throughout American history. Cheever (E.E. Cummings: A Life, 2014, etc.) begins with a compelling premise: that "drinking and taverns have been as much a part of American life as churches and preachers, or elections and politics." When the Pilgrims made their long and dangerous voyage to America in 1620, beer was crucial to their well-being; when it began to run out, beer became the reason why they landed in Massachusetts rather than Northern Virginia. George Washington owned and operated his own distillery. During his time as a commander of the Continental Army, he "helped his soldiers fight by getting them a little drunk," unwittingly beginning a tradition that wedded alcohol to military endeavors that continues to this day. Alcohol—and in particular, rum—also became tied to the Colonial economy through slavery. By the end of the revolutionary era, two distinct attitudes toward tippling had emerged: that it was "a gift from God" but that its result, drunkenness, was "a curse from the devil." While individuals began preaching temperance in the 1800s, alcoholism began to leave its ugly genetic legacy in many highly respected American families, including Cheever's own. The anti-alcohol crusades of the 19th century led to Prohibition in the 1920s. But rather than "make the country healthy…it made them sick" while increasing the crime it was supposed to eradicate. When drink became legal again under Franklin Roosevelt, writers such as Ernest Hemingway and the author's father, John Cheever, "made up for the generations before and after them" by drinking to excess while creating an enduring, and poisonous, link between writing and alcohol. As implicated as she is in the history of drinking in America, Cheever does not condemn it. Instead, she offers a colorful portrait of a society that, like her own family, has been indelibly shaped by its drinking habits. An intelligently argued study of our country's "passionate connection to drinking."