The Social History of Bourbon: An Unhurried Account of Our Star-Spangled American Drink

Bourbon, pronounced “ber-bun” in Kentucky where they ought to know, is the distinctive spirit of the Western world, the fine champagne cognac of the United States. Its place in American culture has long waited for objective treatment. The saga is a lively one, intimately associated with valor and splendor and the grace of life; with villainy, too, and folly and man’s inhumanity to man. And it has dramatic events such as the Whiskey Rebellion, the notorious “whiskey forts” of the fur trade, ...