Booze: When Whiskey Ruled the West

by James H. Gray

Booze captures the wild days of the Canadian west, when battles raged between the wets and the drys.

From Winnipeg to the Rockies, whisky kept the prairies in a ferment for fifty years. Taking advantage of the enormous influx of immigrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, hotels sprang up in the towns and cities to cater to the prodigious thirst of their patrons. The unrestricted boozing resulted in drunkenness, brawling, petty crime and the disappearance of many a paycheque. It also resulted in a vigourous and ultimately successful campaign for total prohibition, and from approximately 1916 to 1924 the three Prairie provinces were legally dry.

In his characteristic lively and engaging style, James Gray writes about a little-known aspect of Canadian social history, its aftermath, and the effects it has had on our lives today.

Unlike many historians, Gray focuses on the everyday lives of ordinary men and women to give an authentic picture of the early years in western Canada. Booze was an instant bestseller when it was originally published in 1972, and has sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada and the U.S.

225 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 1974

Reviews

[Amanda Borys · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book as a bit schizophrenic. The first part was a fun romp through the battles between the Wets (those who wanted liquor sold, and, more importantly, drunk!) and the Drys (who wanted, at a minimum, hard spirits banned but would prefer no booze at all). The history was outlined with fun antidotes and interesting, and sometimes shocking, statistics shared. The information was rather Winnipeg and Manitoba focuses, but that was where the author was born and raised.

The end was, honestly, boring, which is unfortunate as it made up probably half the book. The author focused almost exclusively on the Bronfman brothers, who just aren't terrible interesting characters and add violence to the mix. I just don't get why some thing the Bronfmans are heroes for making a lot of money on other people's pain and suffering. A greedy thug is a greedy thug, no matter how much money he spends on his suit.

I still enjoyed pulling out Booze! on public transport. Almost as much as I enjoyed Plaques and People back in my university days. :) And there was some interesting information on Calgary tucked into all the Winnipeg stuff.

[Patrick Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenally interesting, well-researched, and thoroughly illuminates a portion of Prohibition that too often is not discussed.

Can’t imagine why he didn’t call it “Booze: How the West Was Drunk,” though.

[Adrian]

This is the third in a series of three books of social history of the Prairies by Gray. This one is on prohibition and the desire for it that racked the prairies for fully fifty years from the 1870s to the 1920s. Gray effectively smashes the myth that it was something foisted on the people from above. People voted in favour of prohibition time and again in plebiscites. In 1913/14 Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta managed to enforce an incomplete prohibition for approximately eight years. Incomplete because provinces couldn't stop interprovincial trading and drugstores were always allowed to sell alcohol as 'medicine'. The federal gov't passed a prohibition law in 1918 but it was repealed the next year. This volume also has a good profile of the Bronfman brothers as bootleggers.