Book Review: Jack Daniel's Legacy

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Book Review: Jack Daniel's Legacy

Unread postby bourbonv » Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:51 pm

Jack Daniel's Legacy by Ben A. Green. Nashville, TN. Rich Printing Co., 1967. Foreward, Contents, Appendices, Illustrated, pp. 210.

This book tells an entertaining story of Jack Daniel that includes all of the legends mentioned in their advertising and on their label. The author creates a very light mood that makes the book a very quick and interesting read. He also provides several black and white photographs of people and places mentioned in the story. While reading this book Jack Daniel is a hero in the whiskey world that makes good despite all opposition and his legacy is equalled by the Motlow family after his death.

The problem with this book is that it relies almost completely upon the oral traditions of the Motlow family and distillery workers without other sources to back up this information. Oral history is great up to a point and then it would be nice to see some footnotes with other sources backing up the oral tradition. Unfortunately this book has no footnotes or even a bibliography. The writer was more interested in tell a story than doing history, thus the book is of limited value to the historian. Even so, it makes a good read and should be part of a good distilling library.

Mike Veach
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873
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