King of Drinks

Dmitri van den Bersselaar, Ph.D. (1998), Leiden University, is Lecturer in African History at the University of Liverpool. He has published on the social and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century Ghana and Nigeria.

• Chapter 1. Introduction: foreign imports, local meaningsChapter 2. The Rise of GinChapter 3. Becoming the King of DrinksChapter 4. ‘Bird gin’ and ‘money gin’: brands and marketingChapter 5. Poison or medicine? Changing perceptions of Dutch ginChapter 6. ‘Your very good health!’ Gin for an independent West AfricaChapter 7. Schnapps gin from modernity to traditionChapter 8. BibliographyIndex

"This book is both provocative and subversive. The evidence that van den Bersselaar provides for his central argument—that “imported goods are likely to be incorporated into African consumptive patterns in ways that make sense in the context of existing yet continually changing African world views, .....” — has important implications not only for our understanding of modern West African history but for broader scholarship on consumption and commodities as well. Better yet, it’s a pleasure to read." - Charles Ambler, in: African Studies Review 2008"Like many commodity histories, van den Bersselaar’s book successfully combines aspects of economic, political and social history with, in this case, excursions into the history of trade law and advertising" - Insa Nolte, in: Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 23, No 2 (Spring, 2009)