Madelon Powers recreates the daily life of the barroom, exploring what it was like to be a "regular" in the old-time saloon of pre-prohibition industrial America. Powers concentrates on the turbulent years from 1870 to 1920 when the industrial revolution wrenched and reshaped American society and its working-class institutions.

Powers examines the lives of saloongoers across America, including those in major cities such as New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco as well as smaller cities such as Sioux City, Shoshone, and Oakland.

Powers concludes that an underlying code of reciprocity and peer group honor in saloon life unified the regulars and transformed them into a voluntary association. Thus, amid the fumes of beer and cigars, the regulars were able to cultivate the dual benefits of communal companionship and marketplace clout, making the old time saloon one of the most versatile, ubiquitous, and controversial institutions in American history.