What I've Read: The Search for God and Guinness

My sister, bless her heart, keeps trying to get me books that she thinks I'll like. Now, to her credit, she got this one half-right. Looking at the title, the Guinness part is right up my alley. In the beer world, no pint gets me close to sheer happiness than Sir Arthur Guinness' finest. It's the God part ... notsomuch.

She's tried getting me books before, and we saw how unfortunate that turned out. And with this one, I'm worried there is a creepy trend. Both her attempts at literary gold struck out because they both ventured into some heavy religious territory that I want no part of.

There are red flags all over the place warning her that this may not be the best choice. For one, it say God above Guinness in the title, which should be a pretty clear indicator of the focus. Second, the author is a well-known evangelist, so that also was a sign. And third, it said God before Guinness in the title.

I'll take a moment away from my sister's selection capabilities and turn to the book itself. It's split between the history of the famous beer brand and the history of the family that created it and their religious bent. The beer parts were cool, I suppose. I learned a bit more than I did on the brewery tour in Dublin. The family history part was nice, in the sense that this was a rich family who spent a considerable fortune on the poor and needy around Ireland and Britain, so their faith helped turn their riches into good works for those in need.

What sucks most is that Mansfield does less research on this book than I did on my high school book reports (and half those books I never even read). Too many of his statements are questionable at best, starting with, "We can assume ..." or "He probably thought …" and he makes making massive presumptions of a person's thought process or actions without a lick of fact to back it up. When that's not happening, he takes a lot of liberties with quoting constantly from all sorts of letters and crap that don't exactly add much depth but sure do pad out the page count. Further, if there are 30 photos in the book, 27 of them are pictures taken within the last three years on the brewery tour, and maybe 3 of historical note. Dan, Luke and I took better pics of Guinness on our iPhones. It just all comes across as rather lazy. All of this is to say that there this would be fine if this were a book of fiction, not a piece of historical nonfiction that it actually is.

Hey, it's fine, not every book you read is going to be a winner. I'm just not sure I can trust something from my sister unless she starts being more clear about her intentions, or at the very least taking the time to read the dust jacket and deciphering what the hell she's getting me. But I love her for trying. I think that'll save this post from her scorn. Yeah, that'll do it.

What I've Read: Last Call

It tooks weeks longer than I had hoped, but I finally conquered this mammoth, deep dive into the rise and fall of Prohibition. Being an avid drinker, this book is right up my alley and the 14 years of Prohibition (and the years before and after it) are filled with more interesting stories than I had thought, and almost none of it had to do with gangsters.

I admit that my interest in this book was mainly because I thought it would be about Capone, bootlegging, moonshining and all sorts of fun, nefariousness. But instead, this book surprised me by being filled with names, dates, legislation and lots more names, dates and legislation.

The thrust of Last Call is more about the political, business, religious and social aspects of Prohibition. It's about the sexism and racism (there was A LOT of both, believe me, and it was overt and unapologetic) that were used to make particular arguments and sell a nation on outlawing drinking. It's about the political machinery that was sweeping that took a Democratic idea like national Prohibition and in many ways forever shaped the Republican and Democratic parties when their values and political positions were almost contrary to what they are now. It's about the Canadian and foreign businessmen (and those few surviving megabrewers like Miller, Busch and Pabst) that made a fortune off illegal liquor and beer.

There is a lot to digest in Last Call. It's crazy that less than 100 years ago this nation, in an overwhelming way, voted to tell people what they couldn't do in their own homes, and then watched as everyone – rich, poor, black, white, whatever – flouted those laws in every conceivable way. It's perhaps the greatest failure in American legislative history. Anyone with a passing interest in drinking should read this just to see where we've come as a nation of alcohol consumers. Just know this: For all the hubbub about drinking today, we don't even come close to consuming as much alcohol as we did before Prohibition. Back before 1920, Americans were (on average) drinking 2.6 gallons of alcohol per person. That equates to roughly 520 bottles of beer per year, per person. Damn. The current statistics are about 2.2 gallons per year, so there's some progress. Check out this book, you'll be surprised how much you learn, even if it takes you seemingly eight months to read it.

My Ireland Vacation

When I went to Ireland with Dan and Luke back in March, there were several must-do things we had on the list. Ranking high was drinking copious amounts of Guinness, since much of it is brewed in downtown Dublin. As soon as Dan and I got off the plane and hurled our luggage into our hotel room, we practically ran into the city centre to find a decent-looking pub for a pint. We ended up at The Old Stand. We watched live rugby on the TV, Dan ate Irish Stew and I heartily consumed Guinness and Beef Casserole. The photo of my first (of five) Guinness pints during that lunch. It was, by far, one of the best beginnings to a vacation I've had.