It's difficult for us to imagine now what life was like for our grandparents and great-grandparents as young working adults in pre-prohibition America.  Saloons were so prevalent that a 1894 survey of the larger US cities showed them to have an average of one saloon for every 2,000 or so residents.  While this might suggest that alcoholism was rampant, stopping in at a saloon for a drink was much more of a social event than it was an occasion to get inebriated.  Indeed, saloons were a vital component of the social fabric that tied the communities together in pre-prohibition times.  Learning more about saloon life helps a collector understand where many of those thousands of different pre-pro shot glasses were distributed.

Saloons of the Old West, by Richard Erdoes,  1997, Random House, New York, NY.  ISBN 0-517-1873-8.  Availabilty: Out of Print, but readily available from used book dealers.

Faces Along the Bar.  Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920, by Madelon Powers, 1998, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.  ISBN# 0-226-67769-9.  $16,  Available at your local book store.