Contraband Cocktails


Book Description

Americans weren’t supposed to drink during Prohibition—but that’s exactly when “cocktail culture” came roaring to life. The Bloody Mary, sleek cocktail shakers, craft mixology, and hundreds of other essentials of modern drinking owe their origins to the Dry Years. In Contraband Cocktails, Paul Dickson leads us on a fascinating tour of those years—from the “Man in the Green Hat” making secret deliveries to Capitol Hill, to The Great Gatsby’s Daisy pouring Tom a mint julep at the Plaza, to inside the smoky nightclubs of the Jazz Age—Dickson serves up an intoxicating tale of how and what Americans drank during Prohibition. Chock-full of scandalous history, cultural curiosities, and dozens of recipes by everyone from Ernest Hemingway to Franklin D. Roosevelt—along with a glossary of terms that will surprise the most seasoned bartender—Paul Dickson’s Contraband Cocktails is the perfect companion to any reader’s Cocktail Hour.




Moonshine


Book Description

You might think moonshine only comes from ramshackle stills hidden away in the Appalachian Mountains, but the fact of the matter is we’ve been improvising spirits all around the world for centuries. No matter where you go, there is a local bootleg liquor, whether it’s bathtub gin, peatreek, or hjemmebrent. In this book, Kevin R. Kosar tells the colorful and, at times, blinding history of moonshine, a history that’s always been about the people: from crusading lawmen and clever tinkerers to sly smugglers and ruthless gangsters, from pontificating poets and mountain men to beleaguered day-laborers and foolhardy frat boys. Kosar first surveys all the things we’ve made moonshine from, including grapes, grains, sugar, tree bark, horse milk, and much more. But despite the diversity of its possible ingredients, all moonshine has two characteristics: it is extremely alcoholic, and it is, in most places, illegal. Indeed, the history of DIY distilling is a history of criminality and the human ingenuity that has prevailed out of officials’ sights: from cleverly designed stills to the secret smuggling operations that got the goods to market. Kosar also highlights the dark side: completely unregulated, many moonshines are downright toxic and dangerous to drink. Spanning the centuries and the globe, this entertaining book will appeal to any food and drink lover who enjoys a little mischief.




Drugs in America


Book Description

This basic analysis of the drug problem in America describes the historical and present use of mood-altering drugs; the economics of drug trafficking; theories of addiction; and the resulting crime, violence, and community deterioration. In addition, the author focuses on the effects of legalizing drugs and the role of law enforcement. This is an ideal text for any course discussing drug use and abuse.




Intoxicating Pleasures


Book Description

In popular memory the repeal of US Prohibition in 1933 signaled alcohol's decisive triumph in a decades-long culture war. But as Lisa Jacobson reveals, alcohol's respectability and mass market success were neither sudden nor assured. It took a world war and a battalion of public relations experts and tastemakers to transform wine, beer, and whiskey into emblems of the American good life. Alcohol producers and their allies--a group that included scientists, trade associations, restaurateurs, home economists, cookbook authors, and New Deal planners--powered a publicity machine that linked alcohol to wartime food crusades and new ideas about the place of pleasure in modern American life. In this deeply researched and engagingly written book, Jacobson shows how the yearnings of ordinary consumers and military personnel shaped alcohol's cultural reinvention and put intoxicating pleasures at the center of broader debates about the rights and obligations of citizens.




If Jewels Could Talk


Book Description

A treasure trove of forgotten stories about jewels throughout history by internationally renowned jewellery expert, Carol Woolton. If Jewels Could Talk: Links Through Time delves into the history, cultural significance and eclectic trivia of jewellery. As a jewellery historian, jewellery editor at British Vogue and now podcast host, Carol Woolton is uniquely qualified to take us on a whistlestop tour through history via seven items of jewellery: hoops, rings, beads, charms, brooches, cuffs and head ornaments. Weaving in examples from cultures around the world, Carol will uncover fascinating stories about Viking silver torques, Imperial jade in China, sixteenth-century Posy rings, organic gems, snake motifs, Roman cameo carving, Hindu wedding jewellery, Etruscan gold, Ancient Greek coins, piercings, Wedding pigs in China, tiaras and anklets - to name but a few. A beautiful and illuminating gift for any jewellery lover, If Jewels Could Talk shines a light on all that glitters and more.




Tipsy Smoothies


Book Description

A dream come true for any smoothie and/or cocktail lover, "Tipsy Smoothies" is a unique collection of tasty recipes for smoothies with a kick. Readers will find more than 150 popular mixed drinks transformed into delicious cocktail smoothies.




Unintended Consequences


Book Description

How is it that, in doing our very best to achieve one thing, we can end up achieving just the opposite? There exists an unseen force with an unassuming name that conceals all manner of terrors. It is ‘Unintended Consequences’, and it takes our efforts to do the good and right thing, turns them to ashes and blows them back in our faces. Whether it be governments fighting a “War on Terror” only to bring their economies crashing about their ears, ecologists attempting to stamp out pests but making things ten times worse in the process, or giving people lots of choice only for them to make worse decisions, it is all too easy to start out with the best of intentions, only to end up doing more harm than good. In Unintended Consequences, Clive Wills discusses national disasters, Prohibition and the War on Drugs, frustrated efforts to improve health and safety, and touches on issues of everyday life such as how to improve relationships and bring up children. As HL Mencken reflected, “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong”. This book examines the many ways in which those apparently simple solutions can turn around and bite us, and more importantly, just what we can do about it.




The New Old Me


Book Description

“A funny, seasoned take on dashed illusions.”—O Magazine “I love everything Meredith Maran writes. She is insightful, funny, and human, and the things she writes about matter to me deeply. Her memoir, The New Old Me, is a book I don’t just want to read—I need to read it. So does everyone else who’s getting older and wants to live fully, with immediacy and enjoyment, which is to say, everyone.”—Anne Lamott, author of Hallelujah Anyway For readers of Anne Lamott, Abigail Thomas, and Ayelet Waldman comes one woman's lusty, kickass, post-divorce memoir of starting over at 60 in youth-obsessed, beauty-obsessed Hollywood. After the death of her best friend, the loss of her life’s savings, and the collapse of her once-happy marriage, Meredith Maran leaves her San Francisco freelance writer’s life for a 9-to-5 job in Los Angeles. Determined to rebuild not only her savings but also herself while relishing the joys of life in La-La land, Maran writes “a poignant story, a funny story, a moving story, and above all an American story of what it means to be a woman of a certain age in our time” (Christina Baker Kline, number-one New York Times–bestselling author of Orphan Train). Praise for The New Old Me: “High time we had a book that celebrates becoming an elder! Meredith Maran writes of the difficulties of loss and change and aging, but makes it clear that getting on can be more interesting, more fun, and a lot more exciting than youth.”—Abigail Thomas, author of the New York Times bestseller What Comes Next and How to Like It “By turns poignant and funny, the book not only shows how one feisty woman coped with a ‘Plan B life’ she didn't want or expect with a little help from her friends. It also celebrates how she transformed uncertainty into a glorious opportunity for continued late-life personal growth. A spirited and moving memoir about how ‘it's never too late to try something new.’”—Kirkus




Prohibition in Washington, D.C.


Book Description

Even in the city where the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, the party went on—a history of bootleggers and speakeasies in the nation’s capital. Despite the passage of the Volstead Act, it was estimated that in 1929, bootleggers brought twenty-two thousand gallons of whiskey, moonshine, and other spirits into Washington, DC’s speakeasies—every week. The bathtub gin-swilling capital dwellers made the most of Prohibition. This rollicking history brims with stories of vice—topped off with vintage cocktail recipes and garnished with a walking tour of former speakeasies. Discover an underground city ruled not by organized crime but by amateur bootleggers, where publicly teetotaling congressmen could get a stiff drink behind House office doors and the African American community of U Street was humming with a new sound called jazz. Includes photos!




Daily Life in Jazz Age America


Book Description

This volume reveals the everyday actions of individuals and their reflections on their lives during the 1920s. The Jazz Age was a tumultuous time for Americans as they attempted to come to terms with "modernity." Daily Life in Jazz Age America tells the story of how all Americans—blacks and whites, women and men, workers, employers, consumers, and activists—contended with new cultural attitudes as well as persistent racial, ethnic, and class tensions. The book provides a broad examination of American society during the 1920s. Organized thematically, it covers rural and urban America; the changing nature of gender relationships; race relations; popular culture; the rise of mass spectator sports; and religion. Appropriate for general readers and students of history, Daily Life in Jazz Age America provides an informed and compelling narrative history and analysis of daily life within the context of broad historical change.




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