America’s founding generation drank a staggering amount of alcohol by today’s standards. It influenced their politics, built and sustained their relationships, and drove the economy.
Booze was not a small part of colonial society, nor covertly consumed in private spaces — it was integral to American life.
Americans in the era of the American Revolution drank an average of nearly 3.7 gallons of hard liquor per person annually, compared to modern averages of about 2.5 gallons. Drinking began at breakfast and persisted throughout the day, and it was deeply ingrained in military, political, and social life.
In Cocked and Boozy: An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution (Chicago Review Press, 2026) public historian Brooke Barbier examines the role that alcohol played in spurring, binding, and winning the Revolution and how it shaped the nascent United States.
Every chapter concludes with an eighteenth-century cocktail recipe made for modern tastes, so readers can participate in their own historic tippling.
The intoxicating story begins in 1763 after the end of the French and Indian War and spans until 1800, with the presidential election of Thomas Jefferson.
During these nearly four decades, Americans witnessed unprecedented disorder and prodigious growth, and through it all — powering it Barbier claims — was alcohol.
Brooke Barbier is a public historian who received her PhD in American history from Boston College. In 2013, she founded Ye Olde Tavern Tours, a popular outing that takes guests into historic sites and taverns to learn about Boston’s revolutionary and drunken history.
She is the author of Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire and the award-winning King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father.
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