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Product Description
Product Description
In this definitive history, Ian Williams describes in captivating detail how Rum and the molasses was made from the 18th century to the present. Rum was used by the colonists to clear Native American tribes and to buy slaves. To make it, they regularly traded with the enemy Frency during the Seven Years' War, angering their British masters and setting themselves on the road to Revolution. And the regular flow of rum was essential to keeping both armies in the field. From Valley Forge to the trenches of the First World War, soldiers relied on rum to keep up their fighting spirits. Even though the Puritans themselves were fond of rum in quantities that would appall modern day doctors, temperance and Prohibition have obscured the historical role of the "Global Spirit with its warm heart in the Caribbean." Ian Williams' book - as biting and multifacited, yet warm-spirited as the drink itself - triumphantly restores Rum's rightful place in history, taking us across space and time, from its origins in the plantations of Barbados through Puritan and Revolutionary New England, to voodoo rites in modern Haiti, where to mix rum with Coke risks invoking the wrath of the god, and across the Florida straits where Fidel and the Bacardi family are still fighting over the rights for the ingredients of Cuba Libre.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This is a good book written through the eyes of a historian. Whilst littered with a few memorable stories i found that the writer is very much biased in his view of rum and it's place in history. I found the first 50 something pages somewhat dull as it was mainly the sugar trade and it"s origins. I appreciate this was a large part of rums humble beginnings but 50 odd pages seemed excessive and not that exciting to read. Overall the book is well structured and provides good insight to rum and it's history. Even though the writer briefly expresses his passion for rum I feel the book is presented more as a view from a historian rather than from a knowledgable drinker.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
im happy wth the book, i got it very fast and in good conditions, and wow the book is a joy to read. thx
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A delightful read
5 Oct 2005
Format:Hardcover
Ian Williams sheds light on the role of the sugary distillation in shaping America in the Revolution and thereafter. The book is filled with juicy anecdotes and tales. You will have a new respect for rum after reading this amusing and enlightening book
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Good book overall, but not stellar
27 May 2008
Format:Hardcover
Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776 does a decent job of painting the picture of rum in the lives of early American colonists. It's been praised as "rambunctious, rollicking history, sodden with tasty lore," (Kirkus Reviews), but I find the writing style a little lackluster, actually. The play on spirits (distilled alcohol), spirited (lively), and spiritual (in a religious context) can only be funny for so long, but Williams stretches it to the last drop. A minor quibble, though the author does occasionally give in to the temptation to use as much verbiage as possible without ending a sentence. It gives the book a much less scholarly attitude that it would otherwise have had.
That said, the information Williams presents is interesting, in its context. The author's focus is clearly early American history, which is not unreasonable, given that rum's very origin was in the New World, the Americas. However, the reader is occasionally left with the feeling that there may be a broader context he is missing out on. Of course, the title of the book does limit the focus, but limiting the focus of a book which is already very narrow in scope (rum, as a topic, is not especially broad compared to, say, trade in general, or even alcohol in general) doesn't help matters. Williams occasionally seems to be a little bit too eager to prove his points, sometimes grasping at straws; however, in a book about a subject often lacking in documentary evidence, some conjecture is not out of place.
Williams cites most of the same sources most other histories of rum use, mainly because there aren't many solid primary sources out there. He then proceeds into less murky areas, to the American Revolution and rum's role therein (which he exaggerates from time to time). The very end of the book contains a few short chapters about rum in different locales, and he closes with a brief chapter regarding the US Prohibition era. There is also a section of black-and-white pictures, including vintage advertisements.
All in all, Ian Williams' Rum is quite readable, and worth having in your collection, if you do indeed have a collection of this sort of book. If my review has sounded somewhat tepid, it's only because I have since read other treatments of the subject that I find better; another good addition to your liquor library would be Wayne Curtis' And a Bottle of Rum. But if you'd like a light read, and you're in no danger of taking everything you read at face value, A Social and Sociable History is worth picking up. I'd give it 3.5 stars, but Amazon won't allow it.
That said, the information Williams presents is interesting, in its context. The author's focus is clearly early American history, which is not unreasonable, given that rum's very origin was in the New World, the Americas. However, the reader is occasionally left with the feeling that there may be a broader context he is missing out on. Of course, the title of the book does limit the focus, but limiting the focus of a book which is already very narrow in scope (rum, as a topic, is not especially broad compared to, say, trade in general, or even alcohol in general) doesn't help matters. Williams occasionally seems to be a little bit too eager to prove his points, sometimes grasping at straws; however, in a book about a subject often lacking in documentary evidence, some conjecture is not out of place.
Williams cites most of the same sources most other histories of rum use, mainly because there aren't many solid primary sources out there. He then proceeds into less murky areas, to the American Revolution and rum's role therein (which he exaggerates from time to time). The very end of the book contains a few short chapters about rum in different locales, and he closes with a brief chapter regarding the US Prohibition era. There is also a section of black-and-white pictures, including vintage advertisements.
All in all, Ian Williams' Rum is quite readable, and worth having in your collection, if you do indeed have a collection of this sort of book. If my review has sounded somewhat tepid, it's only because I have since read other treatments of the subject that I find better; another good addition to your liquor library would be Wayne Curtis' And a Bottle of Rum. But if you'd like a light read, and you're in no danger of taking everything you read at face value, A Social and Sociable History is worth picking up. I'd give it 3.5 stars, but Amazon won't allow it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Great History of Rum
31 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
This is not only a scholarly piece of work, but a immensely readable one. Full of history and political commentary covering over 250 years of rum, world politics and of course, drinking. It is an engaging read, full of history and a great reference but with enough humor to be recreational rather than required reading on the subject.
The piece on Bacardi towards the end of the book will make it stunningly obvious why Bacardi bought Grey Goose.
The piece on Bacardi towards the end of the book will make it stunningly obvious why Bacardi bought Grey Goose.
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