16 Jan 2022
Here’s a follow-up #LiquorThread about Carrie Nation for today’s prohibition anniversary.
23 Oct 2021
Kansas saloon smasher Carrie Nation. She’s vilified as prohibitionism incarnate: conservative, Bible-thumping, half-crazed, white, racist, midwestern, morality-legislating evangelical.
But that's ALL WRONG.
Carrie was an American superhero. 🇺🇸🦸♀️
A #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 1/
1
1 Jan 2022
It might also be worth linking to this viral #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 from a few months back to get a sense of what this looks like outside of the well-trodden American experience.
25 Sep 2021
🥃 🧵 This is #Botswana, where all human life began. Today it is a stable, well-functioning democracy w/ the highest standard of living and lowest corruption in Africa.
And the country likely wouldn’t exist without alcohol prohibition.
A #LiquorThread. 🥃 🧵 1/
2
25 Dec 2021
This was one of the more interesting stories of the book, since it happened right where I grew up, in the Quad Cities.
I did a separate #LiquorThread 🥃 🧵 on it.
25 Dec 2021
“The white people brought whiskey to our village, made our people drunk, and cheated them out of their horses, guns and traps. I begged them not to sell my people whiskey. I did this for fear some of the whites might get killed by my people when they were drunk”- Black Hawk
2
21 Nov 2021
Instead of my usual #LiquorThread 🥃🧵, this week I’ve got a new article up at @politico on American collective identity & patriotism fundamentally distorting our view of history & prohibitionism.
Check it out!
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
2
1
5
6 Nov 2021
This is the lost Native American state of Sequoyah. Even having drafted its own state constitution in 1905, it was denied admission to the Union. Yet we may never have had the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment without Sequoyah.
A #LiquorThread 🧵🥃for #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth 1/
1
2
11
30 Oct 2021
No time for a new #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 this week, but I’ll re-up this earlier thread on the boozy roots of the Black Hawk War.
2 Oct 2021
🥃🧵 Q: What do Atlanta’s @NBA team, Chicago’s @NHL team, and a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter have in common?
A: They’re all named after the most badass ALCOHOL PROHIBITIONIST in American history, who waged a TEMPERANCE WAR against colonialism.
A #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 1/
2
2
23 Oct 2021
Kansas saloon smasher Carrie Nation. She’s vilified as prohibitionism incarnate: conservative, Bible-thumping, half-crazed, white, racist, midwestern, morality-legislating evangelical.
But that's ALL WRONG.
Carrie was an American superhero. 🇺🇸🦸♀️
A #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 1/
1
9
19
17 Oct 2021
In this week’s #LiquorThread, we consider how prohibition led to the collapse of an empire. Gorbachev should’ve learned this lesson from history.
16 Oct 2021
🥃🧵Russia, 1917.
Tsar Nicholas II. Vladimir Lenin. Royalists. Bolsheviks.
Two revolutions that’d lead to the rise of the Soviet Union, and forever alter the course of world history.
And it’d never have happened without ALCOHOL PROHIBITION.
A #LiquorThread. 🥃🧵 1/
2
3
16 Oct 2021
🥃🧵Russia, 1917.
Tsar Nicholas II. Vladimir Lenin. Royalists. Bolsheviks.
Two revolutions that’d lead to the rise of the Soviet Union, and forever alter the course of world history.
And it’d never have happened without ALCOHOL PROHIBITION.
A #LiquorThread. 🥃🧵 1/
1
9
10
11 Oct 2021
Indigenous Peoples’ Day quiz:
Who did the MOST to ethnically cleanse the US of its native peoples?
Christopher Columbus? Andrew Jackson?
Nope.
Try JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
America’s first tycoon made his fortune on the drunken misery of Native Americans.
A #LiquorThread.🥃🧵 1/
1
7
17
9 Oct 2021
🥃🧵 Happy Oktoberfest!
Hey! Do you like Germany? 🇩🇪
Do you like beer? 🍺
Do you like German beer?
🇩🇪🍺
Yeah? Well then, THANK A SOCIALIST! Because without socialist temperance, German drinking culture would’ve been vastly different.
A short #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 1/
1
9
21
3 Oct 2021
In case you missed it: this week’s #LiquorThread🥃🧵 looks at these dynamics in the United States, especially the Black Hawk War of 1831-32. Check it out!
2 Oct 2021
🥃🧵 Q: What do Atlanta’s @NBA team, Chicago’s @NHL team, and a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter have in common?
A: They’re all named after the most badass ALCOHOL PROHIBITIONIST in American history, who waged a TEMPERANCE WAR against colonialism.
A #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 1/
1
4
2 Oct 2021
Many thanks for reading to the end of this #LiquorThread.🥃🧵
If you’re interested, the full story—& dozens more like it, all gratuitously cited—can be found in my new book, Smashing the Liquor Machine. Now available in bookstores everywhere. 61/END
amazon.com/Smashing-Liquor-M…
1
8
2 Oct 2021
As mentioned in my last #LiquorThread on Botswana, distilled spirits were everywhere a tool of European colonization, as native populations the world over had no experience with drinks so potent, and so addictive. 7/
25 Sep 2021
🥃 🧵 This is #Botswana, where all human life began. Today it is a stable, well-functioning democracy w/ the highest standard of living and lowest corruption in Africa.
And the country likely wouldn’t exist without alcohol prohibition.
A #LiquorThread. 🥃 🧵 1/
2
1
3
2 Oct 2021
🥃🧵 Q: What do Atlanta’s @NBA team, Chicago’s @NHL team, and a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter have in common?
A: They’re all named after the most badass ALCOHOL PROHIBITIONIST in American history, who waged a TEMPERANCE WAR against colonialism.
A #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 1/
3
6
19
27 Sep 2021
So, the #LiquorThread 🥃🧵 thing blew up far bigger than I ever imagined it would.
Many thanks to all of you for making that possible.
I think I’ll make it a weekly occurrence—though the next ones will definitely hit closer to home than Botswana. (Both for good and for bad)
1
1
13
25 Sep 2021
🥃 🧵 This is #Botswana, where all human life began. Today it is a stable, well-functioning democracy w/ the highest standard of living and lowest corruption in Africa.
And the country likely wouldn’t exist without alcohol prohibition.
A #LiquorThread. 🥃 🧵 1/
55
712
2,362