The Saloon

Presents evidence that the saloon, played an important role in the working-class community life. Focusing on public drinking in Chicago and Boston, this book offers a discussion of the saloon, as a social institution and a locus of the struggle between middle-class notions of privacy and working-class uses of public space.

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This colorful and perceptive study presents persuasive evidence that the saloon, far from being a magnet for vice and crime, played an important role in working-class community life. Focusing on public drinking in "wide open" Chicago and tightly controlled Boston, Duis offers a provocative discussion of the saloon as a social institution and a locus of the struggle between middle-class notions of privacy and working-class uses of public space.