One of its central themes is that alcohol--and especially distilled liquor--functioned as a powerful tool of empire. This was in no small part because the sale of spirits kept the ruling class's coffers full. In Tsarist Russia, Schrad observes, "the vodka monopoly was the largest source of imperial finance." But booze was more than just a moneymaker. It also facilitated what he calls the "alco-subjugation" of the world's peoples, many of whom had no prior exposure to "industrial alcohols." Everywhere distilled liquor was introduced, epidemics of intoxication and addiction followed, rendering entire societies ripe for conquest. In this sense, "colonialism in Africa, Asia and North America was achieved with bottles as much as bullets," Schrad states.

Little wonder that, across the globe, temperance and anti-imperialism activism were so often of a piece. In the years just before Ireland's Great Famine, Father Theobald Matthew traveled the countryside and collected an astounding 5.5 million temperance pledges, building a movement that became closely associated with the fight for Irish independence. In early-20th-century Russia, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks urged the masses to abstain from vodka in a bid to starve the regime of revenue. South Africans registered their objections to colonial rule in the 1920s and 1930s by boycotting beer halls, while in India, for Hindu and Muslim dissenters from the British Raj, "abstinence became synonymous with patriotism."

Notably, Schrad goes on to argue, the United States was not an exception to this global rule. Here, too, temperance movements were powered not by stern divines and dour church matrons but by staunch defenders of the poor and the oppressed. Indigenous leaders led the charge, with the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes, for example, agreeing to "cooperate in suppressing the sale of strong drink." Similarly committed to the cause were abolitionists, women's rights activists, social gospelers, and more. Indeed, Frederick Douglass's line, "All great reforms go together," is one of Schrad's favorite mantras. He supports this claim by underscoring the temperance credentials of not only Douglass but also the likes of William Lloyd Garrison, Susan B. Anthony, and Abraham Lincoln. "These are the heroes of American history, not its villains," Schrad declares.