Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776 |
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Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776
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by Ian Williams
Sales Rank: 298536
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List Price: $26.00
$20.80
At Amazon
on 6-20-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 328 pages
Published by: Nation Books July 10, 2005
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 1560256516
ISBN 13 Number: 978-1560256519
Book Dimensions:
8.2 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
Weighs: 1.1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
The Nation's Williams (Deserter: Bush's War on Military Families) offers a spirited—if rambling—discussion of the history and spread of rum, from the field-side stills of 17th-century Barbados to the scientifically calibrated factories of modern multinationals like Bacardi. His main point? That the "role of rum and drink in both causing and effecting the American Revolution has been filtered out" of our history books. Williams details the mechanics of the pre-Revolutionary triangles of trade: African slaves for the Caribbean sugarcane plantations were purchased with rum distilled in New England from Caribbean molasses. He deftly describes how the American colonists evaded British taxation of rum-making supplies, and relishes the notion of our patriotic forefathers as a bunch of rum-sozzled smugglers. His other discussions—on the use of rum rations by various countries' navies, the production of rum in other parts of the world, the efficacy of Prohibition and his own rum-tasting forays—are less focused. Readers also may tire of Williams's tendency to overwork the liquor metaphor: "cultural alembic," "heady cocktail," "good spirits," "the equation in a small tot," etc. ten pages of black and white illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
A connoisseur of rum, a distillate of sugar cane, Williams (who writes for the Nation) cheerily discusses the liquor but keeps the reader in mind of its dark underside, which was slavery. Structuring matters chronologically, Williams selects anecdotes about rum as if to set up his own witty observations: he is out to entertain, not to bore. The Caribbean Sea's signature contribution to the world's bar, rum originated in Barbados as a by-product of sugar refining--molasses. Williams establishes how molasses became fixed in transatlantic trade in African slaves and, in the mercantile minds of the British, as a revenue source. Williams may oversimplify things by attributing the cause of the American Revolution to New England molasses smugglers, but his product-based interpretation of history will appeal to readers of similar books on cod, sugar, and salt. Tracing rum's run on the frontier, its run from the law in Prohibition, and its contemporary incarnation in popular brands, Williams concocts a stimulating saga. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader Reviews
I was expecting a lot more from this book that its author delivered. After 180 pages, which are mostly historical, it is really a chore to think of finishing it. The historical writing is really a hack and, I suspect, largely a rip off of one or two sources, Traussig's book from the 1920s. Save your money.
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Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776
Available from Amazon
Price: $20.80
Updated on 6-20-2008.
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