Beer connects commercial, social, and political history in this soberinglook at the culture of drinking in South Africa. Beginning where stories of colonialliquor control and exploitation leave off, Anne Kelk Mager looks at the currentcommerce of beer, its valorizing of male sociability and sports, and the corporateculture of South African Breweries (SAB), the world's most successful brewingcompany. Mager shows how the industry, dominated by a single brewer, was compelledto comply with legislation that divided customers along racial lines, but alsopromoted images of multi-racial social drinking in the final years of apartheid.Since the transition to majority rule, SAB has rapidly expanded into new markets --including the United States with the purchase of Miller Brewing Company. This livelybook affords a unique view into global manufacturing, monopolies, politics andpublic culture, race relations, and cold beer.