Download or read book Drinking Matters written by B. Kümin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-10-26 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering the first comparative survey of public houses in pre-industrial Europe and drawing on a vast range of primary sources, this study establishes inns and taverns as principal communication sites in local communities. Contested and continuously renegotiated, they catered for basic human needs as well as infinite forms of social exchange.