Through an innovative examination of inventories, licensing records, petitions, newspapers, sermons, and diaries, Conroy explores the development of tavern culture over time. As provincial society became more complex in the eighteenth century, so, too, did tavern life. In Boston different types of public houses emerged as society became more stratified, and in country towns taverns multiplied as population dispersed.

Specifically, Conroy illuminates the role played by public houses as a forum for the development of a vocal republican citizenry in conflict with royal rule. In doing so, he also highlights the connections between the vibrant oral culture of taverns and the expanding print culture of newspapers and political pamphlets in the eighteenth century.