Matthew Allen, a Senior Lecturer in Historical Criminology at the University of New England, uncovers the fascinating interplay between alcohol and democratic ideals in colonial Australia. He discusses how public drinking rituals both unified and excluded different societal groups, notably women and Indigenous people. The toast, once a symbol of fraternity, also reflected the social hierarchies of the time. As temperance movements emerged, they reshaped notions of citizenship and respectability, highlighting alcohol's role in enforcing political boundaries. A riveting exploration of history and social dynamics!
01:00:10
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Matthew Allen's Personal Drinking Story
Matthew Allen shared his personal conscious drinking habit, counting every drink since his PhD days.
He connected his personal interest with a broader political and social analysis of alcohol's role.
insights INSIGHT
Alcohol: Necessary Evil Duality
Alcohol was seen as both necessary and evil in early colonial Australia, particularly for labor and military.
Convicts were prohibited from drinking due to reformist ideas linking alcohol to crime and immorality.
insights INSIGHT
Rum Rebellion’s Symbolic Role
The Rum Rebellion was more about political power struggles and land rights than just rum.
Rum symbolized autocratic control but was not the primary cause of the rebellion.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia
Matthew Allen
Matthew Allen traces the development of democratic ideas in New South Wales through the history of public drinking and temperance. As the colony transformed from a convict autocracy to a liberal democracy, public drinking practices shaped the character of the emerging political order. The ritual of toasting was a symbolic display of restraint – drunkenness without loss of self-control – that embodied the claim to citizenship of white male settlers. Yet the performative sobriety of the temperance movement was also democratic, a display of respectability that politicized its supporters around a rival vision of responsible citizenship. Drink was a way to police the limits of the political realm.
The nineteenth-century spread of democracy in Britain and its colonies coincided with an increase in alcohol consumption and in celebratory public dinners with rounds of toasts. British colonists raised their glasses to salute the Crown in rituals that asserted fraternal equality and political authority. Yet these ceremonies were reserved for gentlemen, leaving others – notably women and Indigenous people – on the political margins.
Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2025) by Dr. Matthew Allen traces the development of democratic ideas in New South Wales through the history of public drinking and temperance. As the colony transformed from a convict autocracy to a liberal democracy, Dr. Allen argues, public drinking practices shaped the character of the emerging political order. The ritual of toasting was a symbolic display of restraint – drunkenness without loss of self-control – that embodied the claim to citizenship of white male settlers. Yet the performative sobriety of the temperance movement was also democratic, a display of respectability that politicized its supporters around a rival vision of responsible citizenship. Drink was a way to police the limits of the political realm. The stigma of female drunkenness worked to exclude women from the public sphere, while perceptions of heavy drinking among Aboriginal people cast them as lacking self-control and hence unworthy of political rights.
Drink and Democracy reveals that long before the introduction of the franchise, colonists in Australia imagined themselves as citizens. Yet even as democracy expanded, drink marked its limits.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
New Books in Sociology