Pre-Owned Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry (Hardcover) 0983556504 9780983556503

"How many of us knew that the young George Washington bought votes with free beer and rum punch? Or that the old, retired president's distillery pumped out 10,000 gallons of rye whiskey in a single year? Here's a toast to historian Dennis Pogue for excavating the intimate relationship between strong liquor and the strong man at Mount Vernon." "Dennis Pogue has done the reputation of George Washington a huge favor. His painstaking research of the written and archaeological records meticulously places the Mount Vernon distillery in the wider contexts of George Washington's far-ranging plantation and entrepreneurial pursuits. What Pogue reveals is that George Washington was no blurry-eyed visionary. Always practical in his military, political, and business adventures, it is no wonder that he was also extremely savvy about the production and use of alcohol and the role that it played in American society. Beyond that, Pogue explores the significance of alcohol in America's wider public sphere since Washington's time, leading up to the recent restoration of the Mount Vernon distillery." Book jacket.