Mittelman, historian and writer, provides a detailed history of American beer in this book that spans the early Colonial days to the present. American beer has been influenced by many German and Czech immigrants who brought their brewing expertise to the US and founded many breweries. The important topics of taxation and regulation of alcoholic beverages are comprehensively described. Organizations such as the United States Brewers Organization, which enabled brewers to work cooperatively together, are a significant part of the history. Prohibition, dry geographic regions, and the legal drinking age have all impacted the brewing industry. As young adults began to drive regularly, auto accidents associated with alcohol consumption became an issue, and organizations such as Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) were established. Technology issues, such as the sterilization of beer and the development of better containers, are also part of this history. The work contains eight chapters and includes many references for those who want to read original sources. Summing up: RECOMMENDED – ALL READERS.

The George Steinbrenner of the mid-20th century, Ruppert owned the New York Yankees from 1914 until his death in 1939. He also owned the Ruppert Brewery, which had million-barrel sales prior to Prohibition and was a leader of the brewing industry during Prohibition and Repeal. Babe Ruth was at his deathbed and over 15,000 people attended his funeral including Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Lou Gehrig.

Such tidbits of American breweriana are available in a new book by Amherst historian and writer Amy Mittelman. Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer is a story of the American brewing industry and its leading figures, from colonial days to the present. The chronicle includes the story of the struggle of German immigrant brewers to establish themselves in America, and the more recent emergence of micro-brewers.

Mittleman has a Ph.D. in history with a special focus on the politics of alcohol production. Obviously that includes examining the role of Prohibitionists, but also taxation — an issue with beer long before the first European settlers arrived in America.

The United States Brewers Association (USBA), the nation’s oldest trade association, was formed in 1862, not coincidentally the same year the federal government started taxing beer. The USBA worked with the government, the government assured that taxes would be collected and the brewers minimizing (as much as they could) how much they would be taxed.

Despite increasing rhetoric from Prohibitionists this was a solid partnership for more than 50 years. Until ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment (introducing federal income tax) in 1913 liquor industry taxes provided more than 50 percent of the federal government’s revenue. Little wonder that if you browse through the USBA’s annual yearbooks from the ‘teens you get a sense that the government surely would not ban the sale of alcohol and eliminate the source of most its income. By 1920 they were wrong about the income and wrong about Prohibition.

Prohibition did not end simply because the federal government, and now the states (which generally had not taxed liquor), reconsidered the need for the taxes liquor generated. However it did take them only a week after beer resumed shipping to pass new taxes. And 75 years later we’re still debating “sin” taxes.

That’s not all there is to this book. It’s certainly academic in tone, with even more footnotes than Ambitious Brew (don’t take that wrong; I like footnotes), but Mittleman doesn’t settle for just economics and politics.

Often the details are more interesting than sweeping generalizations, most of which you may already have read. These may be quick facts, such as what brewery workers were paid in the 1860s, or a mixture of culture and politics, like the debate between those who wanted to make the annual release of bock beer a major promotion and those who wanted to discontinue production altogether.

She certainly sees the big picture, for instance using the Miller Brewing arc — beginning with Frederick Miller in the 19th century, rattling the brewing industry in the mid-20th century when Philip Morris buys the company, and continuing in the 21st century as a global company after being acquired by South African Breweries — to take us right up to today.

She does not linger over modern micro/craft brewing, but does get to a point at least one person (me) thinks matters.

The emergence of craft brewing highlights a battle within the brewing industry over authenticity and identity. Since World War II the national brewers have connected beer to all things American — baseball, barbeques, race cars, and pretty, sexy women. Yet the nationalizing of the beer industry removed one of the most potent aspects of beer’s identity — localism. The new generation of brewers emphasizes its connection to place and community even more than taste. They stake a claim to authenticity via their roots in a specific locale.

Since German brewers first attempted to institute themselves in America and effectively created the brewing industry, beer has gone from marginalized to outlawed to mass-produced.

If news reports about the war in Iraq have got you down, let me recommend some reading about a more enjoyable set of hostilities: "Brewing Battles" by Amherst author Amy Mittelman. Mittelman, who holds a doctorate in history (with a focus on alcohol production - more on that later) from Columbia University, recently published this exhaustive tome which touches on numerous aspects of brewing history in the United States..."Brewing Battles" peers through a glass brightly at the American brewing industry from colonial days to the present. From the early days of the nation, through the struggles of German immigrant brewers to establish themselves up to Prohibition and the modern craft beer movement, the book leaves no stone - or coaster - unturned in its search for how beer has affected both American culture and government.

<p>Mittelman said she decided to write the book for several reasons. "I had done earlier work on the liquor industry and I saw so many areas of change, but also of continuity," she said. "If you look at what brewers said in 19th century, it's not that different than what they say today and I wanted to explore that. I also felt that the whole nexus of alcohol and government income before Prohibition was fascinating." This nexus to which Mittelman refers is the fact that prior to the institution of the income tax in 1913, the liquor industry taxation provided more than 50 percent of the federal government's internal revenue. It was when she learned this fact, years ago, she said, that led her to focus on alcohol production in her doctoral program. <p>With her background, Mittelman could have chosen other alcoholic beverages for the topic of her book, but she believed beer was the right choice. "When I was looking at it, I wanted something with a long historical span and the history of beer appeared more cohesive," she said. "There were also more identifiable players in the beer industry. Beer has a more indispensable everyday image."

<p>[Asked about her research,] Mittelman said, “I was amazed how modern those 19th century brewers were in how they approached economic and government issues.  And if you look at the modern period, beer has achieved the goal of those early German brewers to make it a national beverage." The book also looks at how brewers shape changing patterns of American alcohol consumption: What we drink, how we drink and even where we drink.”

There are details about the relative standard of living of brewery workers, attention to the implications of the labour movement as well as little reliance on court documents (which I recognize as a lawyer as something of a wonky class of record to rely upon, given its purpose). Many of the citations relating to contemporaneous articles, many from the brewing trade journals of the day. There is a good explanation of the role of taxation and beer from the Civil War when it became a prime source of Federal Revenue to WWI when income tax replaced it, thus assisting in the freeing up beer to be part of prohibition. While not as dry as Tremblay and Tremblay, there is an academic tone to the book but once you are rolling along with the text, it's not an issue….

The quality of the footnoting which, combined with internet news archiving and Google Books, allows the reader to corroborate much of the detail on the go if that is what you are into.

Buy it.

December 5, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) [link to full article] - Americans will Friday toast the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, a dry spell that began in 1920 when a constitutional amendment outlawed alcohol throughout the United States....

"Income tax was introduced in 1913, and once the war was over, the world economy going again and revenue was coming in, the alcohol industry no longer had the excuse that it provided a big revenue source for the federal government," he explained.

So in 1920, pushed by conservative temperance advocates, the United States embarked on the 'Noble Experiment,' as Prohibition was called.

Some say the experiment worked, at least in part.

"For a long period following Prohibition, drinking levels stayed down," said Amy Mittelman, who has a doctorate in US history from Columbia University and has authored a book on American beer.

"So if the goal of Prohibition was to moderate or ameliorate the effects of alcohol abuse, then to a certain extent it succeeded," she said.

"But in large cities like New York, Washington, Chicago or San Francisco, it was never accepted and that generated a degree of non-compliance and lawlessness," she said.

According to Thornton, proponents of Prohibition argued that it would "enhance democracy and the political process, reduce crime and corruption, improve health, reduce addiction."

Instead, abusive drinking increased and crime -- in particular violent crime -- doubled during the 13 years of Prohibition, he said.

The downturn could hurt high-end brewers 

The beer industry is often described as immune to economic downturns. After all, when people get laid off, they want to nurse their sorrows with a cold one, right?

It turns out that, as the beer industry has gone increasingly upscale, the answer to that question is no longer simple. In recent years, beer sales have been relatively flat except in one category—craft beers, which are made by small, independent brewers. Amy Mittelman, author of Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer, says that the heyday for such high-end, specialty beers could soon be over as consumers look to cut costs. Mittelman spoke to U.S. News about the future—and history—of the American beer industry.