The January 31, 2011 copy of The Weekly Standard carries my review of Okrent’s diverting book on Prohibition. In short, I liked it. The prose is often funny and the illustrations are very good. Okrent organized the material very well.
The Effects of Prohibition on Our Palate...
Daniel Okrent’s Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (Scribner, 2010) encouraged me to think more deeply about what we drink and why. On December 3, The Smart Set, an online magazine at Drexel University, published my essay, “The Wet, the Dry, and the Ugly.” If you haven’t heard of this magazine, please give […]
Sam Ward, King of the Lobby
The December 6, 2010 issue of The Weekly Standard carries my review of Kathryn Allamong Jacob, The Life and Times of Sam Ward, Man-About-Washington in the Gilded Age (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). Sam Ward was quite a character—fantastically smart, frequently short-sighted, and endlessly lurching from fabulous success to disaster. When he arrived in Washington, […]
Kosar’s Whiskey: A Global History Is Pub
Copies of Whiskey: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2010) are now selling in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere around the globe. A worldwide list of retailers offering the book can be found here. Jason Wilson, author of Boozehound, and the spirits columnist at the Washington Post, wrote a wonderful review of the book— ‘Whiskey,’ at […]
Andrew F. Smith, Hamburger: A Global His...
Mmmmm, Burgers…., by Kevin R. Kosar, September 7, 2009 I met Andy Smith about a decade ago. At the time, he was working full-time at an educational not-for-profit organization, and cranking out books on food history at the same time. I remember being astonished by his work ethic; he got up every day hideously early, […]