Description
In 1929, it was estimated that every week bootleggers brought twenty-two thousand gallons of whiskey, moonshine, and other spirits into Washington, D.C.'s three thousand speakeasies. H.L. Mencken called it “the thirteen awful years,"? though it was sixteen for the District. Nevertheless, the bathtub gin, swilling capital dwellers made the most of Prohibition. Author Garrett Peck crafts a rollicking history brimming with stories of vice, topped off with vintage cocktail recipes, and garnished with a walking tour of former speakeasies. Join Peck as he explores an underground city ruled not by organized crime but by amateur bootleggers, where publicly teetotaling congressmen could get a stiff drink behind House office doors and the African American community of U Street was humming with a new sound called jazz.
About the Author
Garrett Peck is a literary journalist and craft beer, drinking, wine-collecting, gin-loving, bourbon-sipping, Simpsons-quoting, early morning, rising history dork. He is the author of The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet and leads the Temperance Tour of Prohibition-related sites in Washington, D.C. Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't is his second book. A native Californian and Virginia Military Institute graduate, he lives in lovely Arlington, Virginia. His website can be found at www.garrettpeck.com.
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- Publish date: March 25, 2011
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 160
- Dimensions: 6 x 0.31 x 9 inches
