BOURBON: A History of the American Spirit

I have cancel all my whiskey orders I don't want books

If you're going to enjoy it, you might as well also understand something about the history and evolution of it - that pretty much sums up my objective in picking up a book such as this one. I actually don't drink bourbon very often, but it's fascinating to me how there are so many different producers of the various kinds of whiskeys and other alcoholic beverages, and how something that can be produced relatively easily can vary so much in taste and apparent quality (the basic concepts for producing bourbon or pretty much any other kind of distilled spirit have been known for hundreds of years).This is an enjoyable book to read for someone looking for that kind of information. The author begins at the beginning - in this case it happens to be in the year 1265 when the first discovery was made that led to the development of distilling processes and the variations in liqueurs that we enjoy today. But the focus on the book is the history of the development of bourbon in the United States, in the Appalachian mountains (I didn't know that the famous Hatfield and McCoy feuds were related to bourbon, but it turns out that they were). It continues to the present day, where we have both the very large producers of bourbon (Jim and Jack, of course) as well as the growing numbers of small batch producers, boutique operations that market their brews as 'special' and attempt to command accordingly higher prices.Enjoyable and informative, worth reading from a historical perspective as well as for the bourbon connoisseur's bookshelf (or kindle library, as the case may be).

Awesome book. It sounds like it’s going to be a fun read about the history of Bourbon itself. Instead it is a uncommon book about American history. I had no idea just how integral booze, as a major commodity, was in the building of America’s economy; an economy founded upon capitalism from the very start. Plenty of history has been written about cotton and the early American economy. This book has created a whole new vantage point. Fascinating!

Eines der besten und humorvollsten Bücher über Bourbon der letzten 10 Jahre. Ein " Must read " für jeden Bourbonenthusiasten.

Pas ce que j'attendais.Sur l'histoire oui il y a les infos. Mais j'attendais une présentation des cuvées de bourbon avec des images et des notes de dégustation. Je reste sur ma "soif".