Mountain Spirits: A Chronicle of Corn Whiskey from King James' Ulster Plantation to America's Appalachians and the Moonshine Life

Author: Joseph Earl Dabney
List Price: $12.95
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ISBN: 0914875027
Publisher: Bright Mountain Books, Inc. (April, 1984)
Sales Rank: 147,539
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5
A Spirited History
An artful mix of verbatim quotes and scholarly research, you cheer when Thomas Jefferson lifts the excise tax, and you are saddened by the corruption that Prohibition unleashed. Above all you admire the integrity and the intense vitality of the colorful moonshiners, and wish they had been your friends. I hope that, somewhere, in some hidden valley, on some sheltered branch of a river, there's somebody out there tonight keeping the art and craft of "corn likker" alive.

Thank you, Mr. Dabney, for a wonderful book.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Informative and fun history of an American way of life.
This book gives the basics of making moonshine, not for instruction (though there is enough to get started), but as practical background for understanding the history and life of home whiskey makers. This is no "dry" history, rather it focuses on the more colorful aspects and characters of the craft. Relates how both government greed and criminal corruption helped destroy what had been a lawful legacy of rural American culture.

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