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The Cincinnati Brewing Industry: A Social and Economic History. By William L. Downard. Athens, Ohio, Ohio University Press, 1973. Pp. 173. $12.50

Although also billed as an economic study, William L. Downard's book focuses on the late nineteenth century social, labor, and business history of the Cincinnati brewing industry, relegating the twentieth century mainly to the final chapter. His economic history — more properly business history — is descriptive rather than analytical. One already familiar with Stanley Baron's Brewed in America (Boston, 1962) or Thomas C Cochran's The Pabst Brewing Company (New York, 1948), will meet in Downard no especially important new insights into the development of the American brewing business. The author does contribute to our knowledge of how one city's beer industry fit into the general life of the community. Like those of St. Louis and Milwaukee, Cincinnati's brewing industry was profoundly influenced by the mid-nineteenth century wave of German immigrants who brought a hefty thirst, light lager beer, and a social life centered on the saloon and beer garden. Until Prohibition Cincinnati breweries sold the bulk of their output by the keg to local saloons, frequently owned by the brewing company and leased to an operator obligated to sell the lessor's product. Unlike many brewers in other cities, the Cincinnati firms never developed the national marketing areas made possible by bottling and railroad refrigerator cars. Labor relations and industry trade association contacts followed the general patterns of late nineteenth century business, with one unusual twist: in 1888 striking brewery workers and saloon keepers who were angry at what they considered exploitation at the hands of the brewers purchased one brewery, later investing heavily in others. After Prohibition's hiatus a few larger firms dominated the Cincinnati malt beverage industry, still selling only to a small regional market. Downard has tapped the rich resources of newspapers and the local labor press, but he has ignored the trade journals. Not completely without justification, he complains of the lack of brewery business records, but surely the four presently active firms in the area must have some materials he could have consulted. John H. White's masterly monograph on the Cincinnati Locomotive Builders (Washington, 1965), demonstrates what can be unearthed despite the seeming absence of business records. Beyond the need for a broader, more representative source base, the book could be strengthened by a healthy sense of skepticism. Was Cincinnati's annual per capita consumption of malt drinks really fifty to sixty-five gallons between 1896 and 1910 (46)? If we assume that half the population either abstained or was too young to drink, not an unreasonable assumption, then the drinking half downed a third of a gallon daily — a staggering amount! But, maybe I am naive. It is in his view of labor conditions and saloon life that Downard shines with descriptions like that of the live whale displayed by one