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A Spirited World History from Alchemists' Stills and Colonial Outposts to Gin Palaces, Bathtub Gin, and Artisanal Cocktails
Grove Press
December 2012
On Sale: December 4, 2012
304 pages
ISBN: 0802120431
EAN: 9780802120434
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Gin has been a drink of kings infused with crushed pearls
and rose petals, and a drink of the poor flavored with
turpentine and sulfuric acid. Born in alchemists’ stills and
monastery kitchens, its earliest incarnations were juniper
flavored medicines used to prevent plague, ease the pains of
childbirth, even to treat a lack of courage. In The Book of Gin, Richard Barnett traces the life of this
beguiling spirit, once believed to cause a “new kind of
drunkenness.” In the eighteenth century, gin-craze
debauchery (and class conflict) inspired Hogarth’s satirical
masterpieces “Gin Lane” and “Beer Street.” In the nineteenth
century, gin was drunk by Napoleonic War naval heroes, at
lavish gin palaces, and by homesick colonials, who mixed it
with their bitter anti-malarial tonics. In the early
twentieth century, the illicit cocktail culture of
prohibition made gin – often dangerous bathtub
gin—fashionable again. And today, with the growth of
small–batch distilling, gin has once-again made a comeback. Wide-ranging, impeccably researched, and packed with
illuminating stories, The Book of Gin is lively and
fascinating, an indispensable history of a complex and
notorious drink.
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