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November 2015 Vol. 53 No. 3

This book explores the relationship between the social significance of alcohol consumption and nation-building discourses in Mexico during the 19th century.  Toner (modern history, Univ. of Leicester, UK) builds on Benedict Anderson's perspectives on nation forming processes and Doris Sommer’s notion of "foundational fictions" in Latin America to study literary representation of how consumption of alcohol affected Mexican identity and the construction of the country after its independence from Spain.  The author engages with the most important Mexican fiction writers from 1800 to 1910 to argue that alcohol was viewed in two contradictory ways.  On the one hand, the Mexican cultural elite disapproved of overindulgence in alcohol and worried that drinking establishments (and popular drinks such as pulque) encouraged excess consumption and threatened Mexico’s growth as a country.  On the other hand, some aspects of drinking habits had national significance, and, as such, drinking was an element of praiseworthy Mexican tradition.  Toner grounds her work in a wide range of sources, including newspapers, court transcripts, government policy documents, novels, and medical records.  She also links imbibing alcohol to issues of state revenue, mental health, criminality, poverty, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and nationality.  The volume includes a full bibliography and a vast number of notes.

--J. S. Bottaro, Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.