Imperialism and beer went hand in hand – the former helped its spread; the latter became a status symbol, a powerful economic and socio-cultural force of colonialism. Thus, beer has played a central role in the cultural, economic, and political development of empire and nation. However, while beer often lead to economic and cultural empowerment for the white elite, it became both, a tool of inclusion and exclusion via alcohol policies and ideas of racial chauvinism.

The spread of European empires regardless of the imperial nations led to their reliance on beer and other alcohol for their continued existence through alcohol polices of inclusion and exclusion. European imperialism from Africa to Southeast Asia and beyond initially expanded through economic trade in alcohol and became a key tool of control by these powers. At the same time, colonized peoples also used beer and alcohol production and consumption as a sign of resistance against these same powers through clandestine breweries and distilleries as well as illegal consumption of European-produced libations.

This session aims to uncover the entanglements of beer and imperialism with (1) an overview of British beer imperialism, in general, followed by (2) an analysis of industrial brewing in Palestine which proceeded under the watchful eye of the mandate government. Although there was an emerging market in Palestine, colonialism and the dependence of Palestinian industries on the British hindered the progress of local beer industries in the first decade of the mandate. It was only in the late 1930s that a thriving indigenous brewing industry began to prosper, establishing business contacts, especially with Jewish entrepreneurs in Europe and the U.S. This will be followed by (3), a discussion of how the racial superiority of beer of indigenous, commonly asserted by European colonists, was reproduced by the Japanese in dealings with Korean and other local beverages. Nevertheless, during the occupation of the Philippines, Japanese requisitioned San Miguel for military personnel and left beer from a Dai Nippon subsidiary for the local population. These short presentations (ca. 5 minutes each) will serve as a conversation starter, followed by a moderated panel discussion (20-30 minutes) on pertinent research findings and methodologies which will then be opened to the audience.

Semih Gökatalay is a PhD candidate in history at the University of California, San Diego. His dissertation in progress is a political and economic history of the modern Middle East during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to nation-states.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher is Professor of History and Food Studies at the University of Toronto. His book Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. He is also the author of Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012) and Food in World History, 3d ed. (2023).

Malcolm F. Purinton is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Northeastern University, Boston. His first book, Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste, and Empire is forthcoming (June 1) from Bloomsbury Academic Publishing as part of its Food in Modern History: Traditions and Innovations series.

Jana Weiss, moderator, is DAAD Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently working on her second book entitled The Lager Beer Revolution in the United States: The History of Beer and German-Americans as a Reinvention of Ethnicity, Knowledge, and Consumption.

THIS SESSION IS SUPPORTED BY:

ERIC JOHNSON + ANISSA LISTAK