Book Review: Drink by Iain Gately

More Anglo-Centric Than Truly 'Global' Yet Manages To Raise Interesting Points That Seem Unintended. First off, if you're looking for a truly global look at all things alcohol as it relates to human consumption thereof wherever there have ever been humans... this doesn't really reach that level. Much at all. While there is *some* discussion of parts of the Middle East, Asia, and Central America... this really is much more of a Classical Western Civilization + Anglosphere look at the topic. Meaning anything related to the rise and fall of the British Empire and the lands it had conquered (and later became the world's leading loser of Independence Day struggles) is covered in a fair amount of depth... and anything outside of that is barely touched on at all. Even here, it is much more British focused (and even ignores other parts of the modern 'United Kingdom' nearly as much as it ignores other areas beyond the British Isles), though certain sections on Australia and the United States have a lot to offer that even those familiar with the histories thereof may not be as knowledgeable of.

I read this over the course of my near daily March For My Health walks in Jacksonville, Florida over much of October 2026, and for that purpose it worked rather stupendously. It kept my brain occupied on this same nearly four mile out and back course I walk, it taught me a lot of history even I didn't previously know (again, the Australian section, but also even some of the US sections), and Matthew Lloyd Davies may have been the absolutely perfect narrator for Gately's text here.

As to the interesting yet seemingly unintended points, for one, there were several 19th century books noted as influential here that I wasn't previously aware of... and subsequently picked up via the Gutenberg Project - including American Notes by Charles Dickens, which was apparently his version of de Tocqueville's Democracy In America wherein he toured the United States circa the 1830s and compiled his observations of America and the life of its citizens of that period into a book. Others being Ten Nights In A Barroom by T.S. Arthur and Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (which it seems isn't quite in the public domain yet).

For another, I've known of the prohibition against alcohol sales on Election Day in particular in the American South for much of my life, even lived in my 30s in South Carolina with such prohibitions still on the books and enforced as recently as a decade ago. In this text, Gately gets into the 19th and 20th century issues that created such prohibitions, and echo concerns I have today with removing them - thus the unintended points. (And for that matter, I have similar concerns with ballot selfies, but that is neither here nor there as it relates to the actual subject of this book.) Just interesting observations when reading this text in the days before yet another "MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF OUR LIFETIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Yawn. Learn some history, moron - including via reading this very book.

Now, this is a long book - the text versions apparently approach 600 pages, and while some of that is surely bibliography, that still points to a rather lengthy narrative. Even the Audible edition comes in at over 21.5 hours at normal speed, which makes it one of - if not the - the longest books I've read so far on these walks. Still, for everything it covers... and everything it doesn't... it really could have likely doubled this length and still had at least some areas lacking. So for what it does cover in this length, it really is rather remarkable.

Very much recommended.

This review of Drink by Iain Gately was originally written on November 2, 2026.