A Brief History of the Drink of my People

Ok not so brief. “From the very start of U.S. history, whiskey played a key role in shaping American consumption habits and its political and legal culture. The end of the eighteenth century saw the settlement of a large number of Scots-Irish immigrants in Maryland and Pennsylvania. According to writer Seán S. McKeithan, these newcomers brought with them “the strongly held opinion that whiskey, not bread, was the staff of life, the equipment for distilling, and an expert knowledge of the distiller’s art.”