I''ll Drink to That

I’ll Drink To That by Rowan Cahill [First published on Rowan Cahill: Radical Historian, Author, Educator website 17 October 2023] In the Australian vernacular ‘a slab’ refers to a carton of cans or stubbies of beer, amounting to nine litres; a solid amount of alcohol. In a sense Knocking the Top Off: A People‘s History of Alcohol in Australia (Interventions 2023) is a slab of a book. It brings together 27 authors and 67 chapters of essays and vignettes, variously history and memoir, profusely illustrated by a large cast of photographers and illustrators; all up some 500 pages. Unapologetically leftishly partisan, the chapters present informed and scholarly content in an enjoyable way that avoids the quagmires of academic genres. The authors gathered by editors Alex Ettling and Iain McIntyre, drawn from across Australia, bring to the book a rich array of life and work experiences inside and outside the academy. All have writing and historical skills. It is a tribute to the editors that they have been able to assemble this group and work with its diversity over the five years it took for the book to reach publication. Significant effort and care have gone into its crafting. The editors symbolise the book’s diversity. Social historian Alex Ettling is Melbourne-based, has a deep interest and activist involvement in the intersections of politics and culture, has significant experience as a bar worker, and is involved in community oral history. This is his first book. Social historian Iain Mcintyre, also Melbourne-based, has long involvements in online activism and community radio. He has a number of books to his credit reflecting his interests in music, literature, politics and the unpopular spectrums of popular culture. More recently he was awarded a doctorate for his academic study of environmental direct action. What they have put together is a rich Australian historical kaleidoscope from the colonial period through to the present. The emphasis is firmly on the roles of alcohol and its consumption on the economic, social, political and cultural life of Australia. Within this the focus is on working people, the dispossessed, the marginalised, and the apparently powerless. In this process, the editors and their authors richly and entertainingly demonstrate the point generations of ‘historians from below’ have made, that the shared public spaces of pubs and hotels and their attendant communalities have often been the drivers of significant social and political change. Got to be upfront. I’ve got a piece in the book. A story I told some fifty years ago, but worth retelling in the light of later research and understandings; one of those tales that slip through the cracks of history and is not high on the register of mainstream historians. Deals with a Sydney Cold War attempt to frame prominent communist Seamen’s Union leader E. V. Eliot by thug police and anti-communist interests, with alcohol the agent of smear. The toxic brew generated a tsunami of hugely serious criminal allegations ending up in the nation’s Parliament. It came to nought in the end, and the story concludes with a dash of bitter humour. Brief though it is, the piece captures in a noirish way the grittiness of politics and policing and journalism of the time. The reason for explaining this is because when I was asked to contribute to the book, I was set with a smaller word limit. I obliged and submitted the piece. In due course the editors came back, thrice as I recall, and variously asked me to expand and amplify, authorising more wordage. The piece had to have its own integrity, be able to stand alone, be understood without recourse to other sources, yet not drown in detail and superfluities. And all the while maintain a social history perspective and narrative flow in an informative and enjoyable way. The editorial interactions and emphases in the creation of my piece are indicative of the editors’ vision and the way they worked in crafting and guiding this book to publication. A longer chapter, indicative of the robustness of the book and its worth overall as a serious contribution to social history, is titled “Black Power and Alcohol: An Oral History with Gary Foley”. In this the senior academic and youthful pioneering Black activist Foley is interviewed about his experiences of the 1960s and 70s. Book co-editor Ettling is the informed and sympathetic interviewer. What transpires is a rollicking and rich trip through the politics of the period’s militant Black activism in Australia, the significant roles of alcohol and pubs in the process, the seriousness of the topic enlivened by the interview’s informality and Foley’s sense of humour. The end result is a valuable piece of oral history with much to offer Australian social movement and cultural historians. I rate this a beautiful piece of work in terms of the content and manner of Foley’s responses and the historically informed and seasoned interview technique of Ettling. As I noted at the outset, there are 67 chapters, and they are all robustly alive and profusely illustrated. This is a book Australian publishers might dream of, but not have the guts to attempt. It is to the credit of the publishers at Interventions that they have undertaken this project. I doubt if any reader will leave this book without having learned something new. I’m pretty certain too that it is the sort of book that will be mined by researchers for years to come. I reckon it would make a beaut gift/present for anybody who appreciates a glass or too. Cheers. I’ll drink to that. Rowan Cahill October 2023