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| Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776 | 
 enlarge | Author: Ian Williams
Publisher: Nation Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $4.92
You Save: $12.03 (71%)
New (18) Used (8) from $4.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 323871
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1560258918
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9781560258919
ASIN: 1560258918
Publication Date: August 17, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Good Condition, delivery time 10 to 12 Working days, via Priority airmail from UK
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Product Description
Ian Williams describes in captivating detail how Rum and the molasses that it was made from was to the 18th century what oil is today. Rum was used by the colonists to clear Native American tribes and to buy slaves. To make it, they regularly traded with the enemy French during the Seven Years' War, angering their British masters and setting themselves on the road to Revolution. The regular flow of rum was essential to keeping both armies in the field since 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 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: Read 7 more reviews...
 A very good book! July 24, 2008
A very good book! It has facts, anecdotes, and humor. Not only is it scholarly, but it reads like a good novel. You can't put it down.
Williams describes a time in the Americas when rum was the oil that fueled colonialism, trade, war, and slavery. While astonishing to ponder, Williams convinces you that this was the way of the world back then.
 Good book overall, but not stellar May 27, 2008
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.
 Good info, bad writing. March 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The information in this book seems sound but the writing style is painful. If you like something written in the incredibly dry style of an English professor, you might like this one. If you want an enjoyable read, this isn't it.
Great History of Rum November 1, 2007
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.
Fun Read May 7, 2007
This books is great for travelling. Good story lengths to get you from point to point.
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