The English Pub: A History

Nothing says England like the pub-complete with odd, faintly mythological names, mahogany woodwork and dart boards on the walls. For two thousand years the pub and its predecessors have embodied the notion that ale and beer are good honest nourishing and worthy. Tracing the Englishman's drinking habitat through all its manifestations from rude hovel to alehouse tavern, inn, beershop, and pub, Peter Haydon concludes that he who seeks to stand between an Englishman and his ale is either a fool or a fanatic. A charming blend of whimsy and scholarship is a history of British civilization viewed through the tankard's glass bottom.