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Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History
This book was written by Prof. Frederick H. Smith
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Marco Pierini
Marco Pierini, Rum Historian
Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History
-Book review by Marco Pierini-
As I wrote in my column “The Rum Historian” in this issue of Got Rum?, there is very little scholarly research on rum. However, when some years ago I began to approach the rum world, I had the good luck to come across one of these rare works: Caribbean Rum. A Social and Economic History by Prof. Frederick H. Smith.
Published in 2005 by the University Press of Florida, the book brings together years of historical and anthropological studies on rum and its role in the history of the Caribbean, and it is also the outcome of archaeological excavations carried out by the author himself and other scholars.
This book is a multidisciplinary work in which History, Anthropology and Archaeology come together in order to tell us how a new beverage, of low-quality, and very cheap, has managed to be one of the distinctive features that the popular culture of the Caribbean islands have in common. Many things have struck me, but I would like to mention two in particular.
First of all, the use of Archaeology to investigate modern and contemporary history. For me, as for many in Italy, Archaeology was a discipline necessary to understand the ancient world, the Middle Age at the very most, certainly not such recent times. But, in fact , it works also for the centuries between XVII and XIX.
Secondly, I found it extremely interesting when Smith reflects upon the reasons that led the French and English colonists to produce locally alcoholic beverages and consume rum in huge quantity. His answer, in a nutshell, is that the very large consumption of alcohol was the colonists’ response to a new, hard, very dangerous environment, a form of escapism.
However, starting from the local dimension, the book widens its scope to encompass the whole Atlantic world and its complex economic, political and human saga. And the modern diffusion of rum all over the world.
Personally, I owe a lot to this book. It made me know Richard Ligon, it introduced me to the complex world of the Caribbean, it provided me with a boundless bibliography and, most of all, it made me think. “… evidence indicates that the British island of Barbados and the French island of Martinique were the cradles, if not the birthplaces, of Caribbean Rum.” This sentence, written almost at the beginning of the book, struck me immediately, it entered my head, and my mind started revolving around it. This sentence is what got me started on my quest on the origins of rum.
To sum up, I would strongly recommend this book to all rum lovers. Also because, as well as being a scholar of the highest repute, Smith can write very well and is a talented story-teller.
Marco Pierini, Rum Historian
Marco@GotRum.com