One of the most important but little-known aspects of early American history is the role of beer in our country's founding and formative years. This definitive account of beer's impact on people and events that shaped the birth of a nation will astonish readers. Beginning with the pre-colonial era and ending with America's emergence as an industrial power, this book is a fresh and swiftly flowing adventure.
A definitive and fresh account of the role of beer in our country’s founding and formative years. Beginning with the colonial era and ending with America’s emergence as an industrial power, Beer in America contains many surprising revelations, including the reason the Mayflower really landed at Plymouth, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as homebrewers, and forging the Constitution after hours over beer.
A “fascinating and well-documented social history” of American beer, from the immigrants who invented it to the upstart microbrewers who revived it (Chicago Tribune). Grab a pint and settle in with AmbitiousBrew, the fascinating, first-ever history of American beer. Included here are the stories of ingenious German immigrant entrepreneurs like Frederick Pabst and Adolphus Busch, titans of nineteenth-century industrial brewing who introduced the pleasures of beer gardens to a nation that mostly drank rum and whiskey; the temperance movement (one activist declared that “the worst of all our German enemies are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, and Miller”); Prohibition; and the twentieth-century passion for microbrews. Historian Maureen Ogle tells a wonderful tale of the American dream—and the great American brew. “As much a painstakingly researched microcosm of American entrepreneurialism as it is a love letter to the country’s favorite buzz-producing beverage . . . ‘Ambitious Brew’ goes down as brisk and refreshingly as, well, you know.” —New York Post
A celebration of beer--its science, its history, and its impact on human culture What can beer teach us about biology, history, and the natural world? From ancient Mesopotamian fermentation practices to the resurgent American craft brewery, Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall peruse the historical record and traverse the globe for engaging and often surprising stories about beer. They explain how we came to drink beer, what ingredients combine to give beers their distinctive flavors, how beer's chemistry works at the molecular level, and how various societies have regulated the production and consumption of beer. Drawing from such diverse subject areas as animal behavior, ecology, history, archaeology, chemistry, sociology, law, genetics, physiology, neurobiology, and more, DeSalle and Tattersall entertain and inform with their engaging stories of beer throughout human history and the science behind it all. Readers are invited to grab a beer and explore the fascinating history of its creation.
New England food and drinks writer Corin Hirsch explores the origins and taste of the favorite potations of early Americans and offers some modern-day recipes to revive them today. Colonial New England was awash in ales, beers, wines, cider and spirits. Everyone from teenage farmworkers to our founding fathers imbibed heartily and often. Tipples at breakfast, lunch, teatime and dinner were the norm, and low-alcohol hard cider was sometimes even a part of children's lives. This burgeoning cocktail culture reflected the New World's abundance of raw materials: apples, sugar and molasses, wild berries and hops. This plentiful drinking sustained a slew of smoky taverns and inns--watering holes that became vital meeting places and the nexuses of unrest as the Revolution brewed.
Discover and celebrate the untapped history of Philadelphia beer. The finely aged history of Philadelphia brewing has been fermenting since before the crack appeared in the Liberty Bell. By the time thirsty immigrants made the city the birthplace of the American lager in the nineteenth century, Philadelphia was already on the leading edge of the country's brewing technology and production. Today, the City of Brotherly Love continues to foster that enterprising spirit of innovation with an enviable community of bold new brewers, beer aficionados and brewing festivals. Pennsylvania brewery historian Rich Wagner takes readers on a satisfying journey from the earliest ale brewers and the heyday of lager beer through the dismally dry years of Prohibition and into the current craft-brewing renaissance
The Orders and Decorations of the "enemy" during the Vietnam War have remained shrouded in mystery for many years. References to them are scarce and interrogations of captives during the war often led to the proliferation of misinformation concerning them. To confuse the situation even more, these awards were bestowed by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), known then as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), and a myriad of political and local organizations. Covered ar those Orders and Decorations now considered official by the SRV, as well as many of the obsolete awards bestowed by the DRV and the NLF. It also discusses many of the commemorative, political and local awards. Includes value guide.
Ancient brewing traditions and techniques have been passed generation to generation on farms throughout remote areas of northern Europe. With these traditions facing near extinction, author Lars Marius Garshol set out to explore and document the lost art of brewing using traditional local methods. Equal parts history, cultural anthropology, social science, and travelogue, this book describes brewing and fermentation techniques that are vastly different from modern craft brewing and preserves them for posterity and exploration. Learn about uncovering an unusual strain of yeast, called kveik, which can ferment a batch to completion in just 36 hours. Discover how to make keptinis by baking the mash in the oven. Explore using juniper boughs for various stages of the brewing process. Test your own hand by brewing recipes gleaned from years of travel and research in the farmlands of northern Europe. Meet the brewers and delve into the ingredients that have kept these traditional methods alive. Discover the regional and stylistic differences between farmhouse brewers today and throughout history.
Combining feminist anthropology and theory with culinary history, Catherine Manton examines the place of food in women's history, with a particular emphasis on the life and changing roles of the American woman and her self-image. As Professor Manton makes clear the so-called epidemic of eating disorders at the turn of the twentieth century really is no accident; specific cultural/economic/political conditions make disturbed eating practically inevitable for many American women. At the same time, Manton suggests ways women with eating disturbances can heal themselves through feminist and alternative healing principles. Must reading for students and scholars of American social history, Women's Studies, and ecofeminism.
