Domesticating Drink By Catherine Murdock Analysis

Alcohol has always been a part of feminine culture, but it took a dramatic shift in the early 20th century. In the book, Domesticating Drink, Catherine Murdock argues that during this period, women transformed how society drank and eradicated the masculine culture that preceded this shift. Murdock draws from a few different sources to prove her argument, such as: etiquette manuals published after the turn of the century and anecdotes from the time period. She provides many interesting and unique perspectives on how drinking culture evolved, but she shows a clear bias towards “wet” culture and also makes very exaggerated claims that turn her argument into something that is nearly impossible to completely prove. The backbone of Catherine Murdock’s argument comes from two sources:

Murdock starts her argument by introducing the home entertainment culture that arose in the pre-prohibition era. At the time a variety of authors were publishing manuals on how to properly entertain guests in one’s home. These books became known as etiquette manuals and today can be looked at to show the specific shift in the prevalence of alcohol in the home. Murdock names books such as Etiquette for all Occasions and A-B-C of Good Form which both reference alcohol being served as part of the correct way to have guests. She also turns to cookbooks such as Dainties for Home Parties: A Cook-Book for Dance-Suppers, Bridge Parties, Receptions, Luncheons, and Other Entertainments that includes alcohol in it’s recipes. In order for a hostess to serve food containing alcohol or just alcoholic drinks, they must have alcohol at hand. Murdock uses this culture shift as the first step in her claim of elimination of masculine culture that surrounded drinking. The fact that alcohol was now available to women in the home lead to more and more women drinking. Over time drinking culture moved from something that almost exclusively happened in taverns and saloons, to a pivotal aspect of