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Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776
Books: Text Books: Agriculture: Item 7
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Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776by Ian Williams
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Rum...Enjoyment in Literature, May 24, 2006 Reviewer:Todd Elliott "A Mongoose on Methadone" (Valley Village, CA United States) - This is a fantastic book. It is a history book that reads like a novel. I had no idea that the history of "Kill-Devil" was so convoluted and storied. Mr. Williams clearly not only understands his subject,but is passionate about it. I recommend this book to every armcahair alcoholics who love their booze and love thier history. It never hurts to know what you're getting into, or what's geting into you.
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. 10 pages of b&w 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
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