The beer of today--brewed from malted grain and hops, manufactured
by large and often multinational corporations, frequently
associated with young adults, sports, and drunkenness--is largely
the result of scientific and industrial developments of the
nineteenth century. Modern beer, however, has little in common with
the drink that carried that name through the Middle Ages and
Renaissance. Looking at a time when beer was often a nutritional
necessity, was sometimes used as medicine, could be flavored with
everything from the bark of fir trees to thyme and fresh eggs, and
was consumed by men, women, and children alike, "Beer in the Middle
Ages" and the Renaissance presents an extraordinarily detailed
history of the business, art, and governance of brewing.During the
medieval and early modern periods beer was as much a daily
necessity as a source of inebriation and amusement. It was the
beverage of choice of urban populations that lacked access to
secure sources of potable water; a commodity of economic as well as
social importance; a safe drink for daily consumption that was less
expensive than wine; and a major source of tax revenue for the
state. In "Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance," Richard W.
Unger has written an encompassing study of beer as both a product
and an economic force in Europe.Drawing from archives in the Low
Countries and England to assemble an impressively complete history,
Unger describes the transformation of the industry from small-scale
production that was a basic part of housewifery to a highly
regulated commercial enterprise dominated by the wealthy and
overseen by government authorities. Looking at the intersecting
technological, economic, cultural, and political changes that
influenced the transformation of brewing over centuries, he traces
how improvements in technology and in the distribution of
information combined to standardize quality, showing how the
process of urbanization created the concentrated markets essential
for commercial production.Weaving together the stories of
prosperous businessmen, skilled brewmasters, and small producers,
this impressively researched overview of the social and cultural
practices that surrounded the beer industry is rich in implication
for the history of the period as a whole.
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