From coffee to vodka, and from wines to waters, Manning brings to life the extraordinary registers of meaning across everyday practices. By his bright telling, modernity itself can be understood anew through a tale of multiple imbibings. This delightful book should find a wide readership among anthropologists, historians, and sociologists, as well as scholars ... Read moreof the modern age, semiotics, and food studies.
Bruce Grant, Professor of Anthropology, NYU, USA ‘How much of social life flows from what we drink, when and how we drink it, and with whom!Through a glass clearly and with great ethnographic and semiotic insight, Paul Manning brilliantly contextualizes the potables of American capitalist modernity - (gin) martinis, for instance, and Starbucks coffee - as well as those of Georgian socialism and post-socialism - vodka, beer, wine, and fizzy drinks - revealing their central place in the cultural worlds in which they are produced and consumed.The introductory "aperitif," a treatise in miniature on the proper semiotic study of materiality, will become an instant reading-list classic, as will, no doubt, the entire lively and fascinating book.'
Michael Silverstein, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago, USA Show Less