Alcohol is one of humankind's oldest and most complex inventions. For millennia, it has been a constant companion in our moments of celebration and sorrow, a staple of ritual and relaxation. But this ancient substance is a profoundly insidious one, and we must never forget that its misuse has led to immense suffering. To understand ourselves, we must understand our relationship with it, exploring when humans first discovered its intoxicating power and how that relationship has evolved.

The First Sips: Ancient Brews and Sacred Wines

Humans have been intentionally making alcohol for nearly as long as they have been farming. In the lands that would become China, archaeologists have discovered traces of a fermented rice beverage dating back more than 8,000 years. Around the same time in Mesopotamia, the first brewers began making beer from grain, a practice that would make it the world's most popular alcoholic drink. It's unclear exactly how our ancestors stumbled upon brewing, but they observed that grain porridge, when touched by wild yeast, had an intoxicating effect.

Beer became incredibly important to the Sumerians, earning mentions in one of the world's oldest literary works, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Its production and sale were even regulated in the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest legal codes, from the 18th century BC. The creation of alcoholic drinks wasn't a singular event; it emerged independently across the globe. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent, the Chinese, Native Americans, and the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa all figured out how to brew their own unique beverages.

As societies developed, so did their craft. Humans domesticated grapes, unlocking the secrets of winemaking, a skill that spread across new lands and cultures. In ancient Egypt and China, these drinks were vital to ceremonies. But it was the ancient Greeks who showed a special devotion to wine, making it a central image in their art and a fixture of daily life. They drank it almost constantly, particularly during civic meetings in the agora, which perhaps helped them in making crucial political decisions.

While moderation was considered a key virtue in everyday Greek life, this rule was often suspended for symposia—ritualized feasts where the goal was often to drink until one passed out. The host was meant to ensure the guests maintained some decorum, but countless Greek comedies and paintings tell us this was a losing battle. The Romans inherited this attitude, viewing wine as a democratic drink for all. In Christianity, wine took on a sacred role, symbolizing the blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacrament that unites a believer with God. Still, the sin of drunkenness remained, a warning that few in the Middle Ages seemed to heed.

A World Distilled: The Rise of Strong Spirits

The Middle Ages brought a great leap forward in technology: distillation. With it came potent spirits like cognac, whiskey, schnapps, and vodka. Around the world, others were innovating too. The Japanese began mass-producing sake from rice, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas crafted lower-alcohol drinks like pulque from agave juice. For them, pulque was a sacred beverage, consumed only during rituals, and widespread alcoholism was seemingly not a major issue.

This changed dramatically when Europeans arrived on the continent. They brought with them not just disease and conquest, but also strong spirits. Peoples unfamiliar with such potent alcohol quickly fell prey to addiction. As European expansion shattered their civilizations, those facing the collapse of their world and a deep existential crisis sought refuge in the bottle.

A similar story unfolded in England during the late 17th century. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the government, looking to support its own producers and fill its treasury, heavily restricted the import of foreign alcohol and taxed the raw materials for quality beer. Beer became a luxury, and the English people switched en masse to a cheaper, easier-to-produce alternative: gin.

Made from common wheat, its often harsh taste was masked with juniper berries and herbs. In the crowded, unsanitary London of the time, clean water was a rarity. Gin was not only easier to come by but was sometimes safer to drink than water from a communal well. It could even be used to disinfect wounds. This explosion in availability led to the infamous "Gin Craze." The number of bars in London swelled, and reports of moral decline and rampant crime filled the press. The artist William Hogarth captured the panic perfectly in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane, contrasting the happy, healthy beer drinkers with the wretched, ruinous gin addicts. While the press may have exaggerated the scale of the problem, the image of a city drowning in gin was seared into the cultural memory. The government eventually reversed course, restricting gin sales and removing taxes on beer, and the English people returned to their traditional drink. They didn't necessarily drink less, but they switched back from hard liquor to beer.

The Great Experiment: When Society Tries to Go Dry

Given the clear potential for alcohol to cause serious health issues and social upheaval, it’s no surprise that societies have repeatedly tried to ban it. The most famous example is Prohibition in the United States during the 1920s. Of course, a ban on legal sales did not stop consumption. It simply created a thriving black market for bootleggers and smugglers, which in turn fueled the rise of organized crime. Nearly all the era's most notorious gangsters, including Al Capone, built their empires on illegal alcohol.

A similar anti-alcohol campaign was undertaken in a large 20th-century state where drunkenness had become a massive social problem. After a ban was implemented, alcohol consumption fell, and the results were dramatic. The male life expectancy, which had been falling, rose to its highest point in that nation's history. Mortality and crime rates dropped significantly. But there was a dark side. The poorly planned policy led to the destruction of historic vineyards, crippling regional economies. In their search for a substitute, people turned to dangerous, low-quality moonshine, and drug use became more widespread. Furthermore, because alcohol sales had been a major source of state revenue, the ban created a significant budget deficit. A well-intentioned initiative ultimately ended in failure.

Alcohol has been our shadow throughout history. And as experience shows, for all its dangers, humanity is not yet ready to give up its intoxicating embrace.

References

• McGovern, Patrick E. Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages. University of California Press, 2009.
  This book provides the scientific and archaeological evidence for the world’s earliest alcoholic beverages. It supports the article's claims about the 8,000-year-old rice-based drink in China (Jiahu) and the origins of beer and wine in the ancient Near East, using chemical analysis of pottery shards to trace our long history with fermentation. (See pages 25-44 for early evidence in China and the Near East).
• Okrent, Daniel. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Scribner, 2010.
  This work offers a comprehensive account of the Prohibition era in the United States. It details the social and political forces that led to the 18th Amendment, as well as the unintended consequences discussed in the article, such as the rise of organized crime figures like Al Capone and the creation of a vast, illicit economy centered on bootlegging. (See pages 209-227 for the economics of bootlegging and the rise of gangsters).