Uncorking the Past

Uncorking the Past is a globally ranging, narrative-driven exploration of the history of alcoholic beverages — wine, beer, mead, and fermented drinks from cultures across China, Japan, the Americas, Africa, and beyond — written by Patrick E. McGovern, a leading scholar of ancient fermented beverages. The book draws on archaeological, chemical, artistic, and textual evidence to trace humanity's long relationship with fermentation, and is aimed at general readers and food historians rather than practitioners seeking recipes or technique. A central argument of the work is that the domestication of cereal crops may have been driven in part by the desire to produce alcoholic beverages in quantity, positioning fermentation as a significant factor in human cultural and agricultural development. Published by the University of California Press, the book serves as an authoritative synthesis of archaeochemistry and cultural history for readers interested in the deep origins of culinary and drinking traditions.