America Walks Into A Bar

The tavern has always been an important social aspect of American life. Knowing that my great great grandfather operated a tavern/rest stop for travelers over a century ago, the history and information concerning these watering holes has always interested me. Therefore, when I saw the book, America Walks into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies, and Grog Shops, written by Christine Sismondo, I couldn’t resist reading it. The book did not disappoint me.

Sismondo provides an interesting social history of America, starting with the hard-drinking Puritan founders of Massachusetts (yes indeed, the Puritans enjoyed their beer and drank copious amounts of alcohol), and moving through history, from the American Revolution to the present day, always outlining how taverns and saloons contributed to American history and our way of life.

As Sismondo notes in her introduction, “The bar has been one of the places in which America and Americans have struggled for self-definition, establishing the rights of its citizens to express themselves and effect change…Bars are where people gather and talk, And drink. And alcohol leads to more talking and drinking, and under certain circumstances, a heightened level of outrage and commitment to action…America as we know it was born in a bar.”

Sismondo proves her assertions in an easy-to-read social history of America. She shows how politics and bars have been intertwined through the years and the results of this union.

The establishment of a tavern generally took precedence over the erection of any other building for early settlers, as it served multi functions, including that of way station, rest stop, restaurant, hotel, stable, and also served as a courthouse and building for legal and government proceedings. The early taverns even served as churches on occasion as the tavern might be the only spot in town that was warm.

Sismondo outlines the role taverns played, either directly or indirectly, in the Salem witch trials and the American Revolution. The first Continental Congress used a tavern for its unofficial meeting place. Moving through the decades, we read about the transformation of taverns into grog shops, frontier saloons, urban saloons, American bars, and the hotel bar, and the effect all of these had on the populace. She discusses the origins of the bartender’s recipe book, first published in 1862.

Sismondo’s book gives us a good glimpse into how the prohibitionist movement began and the forces that enabled them to launch a successful political campaign to ban alcohol. In spite of the ban, people soon realized alcohol would never disappear entirely. “It was immediately understood that the Volstead Act was not going to make possession of alcohol a criminal activity. The party was simply going to move into the country’s living rooms, where the well-heeled could drink as much as they wanted,” Sismondo notes. “Of course, as we know, America didn’t say good-bye to the bar forever, merely see you later.”

I found this a very interesting book, and I learned a lot of facts about America’s history. I also look at bars in a new way. As Sismondo says at the end of her book, “The story of the American bar is a love-hate story. There’s a heavy dose of narcissism in it too, since the story of the bar is, really, a story of America itself. As we grapple with the gritty truth that so many of our greats – the revolution, republican egalitarianism, checks against federalist tyranny, labor unions, and gay rights – were born out of a union between half-drunk radicals and punch, it becomes hard not to simultaneously feel smirking pride and self-reproach.”

For a good book that takes a look at a different aspect of American history, I recommend America Walks into a Bar by Christine Sismondo.