Government By the Brewers?

Government By the Brewers? by Adolph Keitel is a blistering investigative exposé that challenges the brewing industry's grip on American politics and society. Drawing on three decades of intimate contact with brewers, Keitel delivers a provocative nonfiction attack on how beer, saloons, and brewing interests allegedly shaped elections, corrupted public morals, and resisted reform during the turbulent years leading up to Prohibition. Keitel confronts themes of vice, public health, and political influence: he argues beer is habit-forming, critiques so-called non‑alcoholic brews, documents saloons and cabarets as centers of vice, and accuses brewers of lavish electioneering and obstruction of temperance efforts. Interwoven with chapter-length investigations are Keitel’s personal accounts of attempts to silence him—legal injunctions, mail suppression efforts, and even alleged poisoning plots—framed within the broader temperance and suffrage struggles of the early 20th century. The tone is polemical, urgent, and steeped in the era’s reformist fervor. Ideal for listeners of political history, Prohibition-era studies, and investigative nonfiction, this audiobook offers a controversial primary-source perspective on corruption, reform, and the cultural battles that reshaped modern American law and society.