by bourbonv » Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:06 am
The Social History of Bourbon: An Unhurried Account of Our Star-Spangled American Drink, by Gerald Carson. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1963. Contents, Foreward, Chronology, Glossary, Chapter Notes, Index, Illustrated. Pp. 280
When a historian thinks of "social history" he tends to think about the history of the common people so in that line of thought the title of this book is a bit misleading. This book tells the history of bourbon through a series of chapter that could stand alone as magazine articles. They are interesting to read but not completely accurate. Carson does use footnotes, but tracking down that information is not always possible. For one example he traces the term red liquor to a letter at the Filson Historical Society, but the letter is not there and there is no record that the letter ever was. Did he find this at another institution and mis-credited the letter? Good question and let us hope that is the case.
The information for these chapters appear to be well researched, but he did rely heavily upon the distilleries (and thus their marketing departments) for information in some chapters. These chapter discuss a variety of subjects from the role of whiskey in the civil war to how then term "whiskey" came to be defined by the Taft Decision. They are easy to read and entertaining. The chronology at the end of the book also helps the reader to get a perspective on this history since the chapter do tend to jump around a bit and the gloosary provides some definitions for terms found in the industry. There are some very nice photographs in this book as well.
This book is another standard for any bourbon library. It is quoted by many other writers and was one of the first books to actually use footnotes to state sources. Its information is 40 years old, but since most of the history subjects are more general industry history, and not specific company history, it is still relevant.
Mike Veach