Rural History 2017 Conference, Panel-Organiser: Juri Auderset, Archiv für Agrargeschichte, Bern, Switzerland

Time: 11-14 September 2017
Venue: Leuven, Belgium
Proposals by: 15 January 2017

The “Alcohol Question” as it came to be called in the second half of the 19th century had multiple ramifications in the culture and society of rural spaces throughout the European continent and beyond. Alcohol was closely linked to agricultural production since the bulk of the overall fabrication of spirits derived from agricultural products such as grain, potatoes, fruits and wood. Moreover, the “symbolic crusade” (J.R. Gusfield) against excessive drinking emerging in temperance movements in the mid-19th century not only focused on the drinking cultures of the industrial proletariat, but also the modes of consumption in the rural population. While the regulatory interventions of states and civil societies took on a great variety of forms – from taxation over monopolies to policies of prohibition and the support of the use of non-distilled agricultural products (e.g. apple juice) – at different times in different surroundings, the alcohol policies at all times had to consider the various interrelations between the agricultural production and the drinking cultures in rural societies. Read more and source … (Web)