Podcast: Play in new window | Download
By Sean Graham
This week, I welcome Adam Zientek, author of A Thirst for Wine and War: The Intoxication of French Soldiers on the Western Front. We chat about how wine became a staple of French rations in the First World War, the perceived benefits of wine, and how it was transported to the front lines in such large quantities. We also discuss perception of liquor compared to wine, the role of alcohol in French mutinies, and the cultural legacy of wine’s role during the First World War in France.
Historical Headline of the Week
Brigit Katz, “Hundreds of Liquor Bottles, Downed by British Soldiers During WWI, Found in Israel,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 24, 2017.
Sean Graham is a cultural historian, an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, and a contributing editor with Activehistory.ca
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Blog posts published before October 28, 2018 are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.