In Glass and Gavel, noted legal expert Nancy Maveety has written the first book devoted to alcohol in the nation’s highest court of law, the United States Supreme Court. Combining an examination of the justices’ participation in the social use of alcohol across the Court’s history with a survey of the Court’s decisions on alcohol regulation, Maveety illustrates the ways in which the Court has helped to construct the changing culture of alcohol. “Intoxicating liquor” is one of the few things so plainly material to explicitly merit mention, not once, but twice, in the amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Maveety shows how much of our constitutional law—Supreme Court rulings on the powers of government and the rights of individuals—has been shaped by our American love/hate relationship with the bottle and the barroom. From the tavern as a judicial meeting space, to the bootlegger as both pariah and patriot, to the individual freedom issue of the sobriety checkpoint—there is the Supreme Court, adjudicating but also partaking in the temper(ance) of the times. In an entertaining and accessible style, Maveety shows that what the justices say and do with respect to alcohol provides important lessons about their times, our times, and our “constitutional cocktail” of limited governmental power and individual rights.

In the 1920s Prohibition was the law, but ignoring it was the norm, especially in New Orleans. While popular writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald invented partygoers who danced from one cocktail to the next, real denizens of the French Quarter imbibed their way across the city. Bringing to life the fiction of flappers with tastes beyond bathtub gin, Shaking Up Prohibition in New Orleans: Authentic Vintage Cocktails from A to Z serves up recipes from the era of the speakeasy. Originally assembled by Olive Leonhardt and Hilda Phelps Hammond around 1929, this delightful compendium applauds the city's irrepressible love for cocktails in the format of a classic alphabet book. Leonhardt, a noted artist, illustrated each letter of the alphabet, while Hammond provided cocktail recipes alongside tongue-in-cheek poems that jab at the dubious scenario of a "dry" New Orleans. A cultural snapshot of the Crescent City's resistance to Prohibition, this satirical, richly illustrated book brings to life the spirit and spirits of a jazz city in the Jazz Age. With an introduction on Prohibition-era New Orleans by historian John Magill and biographical profiles of Leonhardt and Hammond by editor Gay Leonhardt, readers can fully appreciate the setting and the personalities behind this vintage cocktail guide with a Big Easy bent. A perfect gift for lovers (and makers) of craft cocktails, arbiters of style, and celebrants of the Crescent City, Shaking Up Prohibition in New Orleans captures the essence of the Roaring Twenties.

"Theresa McCulla probes the overt and covert ways that the production of food and food discourse both creates and reinforces many strains of inequality in New Orleans, a city often defined by its foodways. She uses menus, cookbooks, newspapers, dolls, and other material culture to limn the interplay among the production and reception of food, the inscription and reiteration of racial hierarchies, and the constant diminishment and exploitation of working-class people. McCulla goes far beyond the initial task of tracing New Orleans culinary history to focus on how food suffuses culture and our understandings and constructions of race and power"--

Lisa Lindquist Dorr tells the story of the vast smuggling network that brought high-end distilled spirits and, eventually, other cargoes (including undocumented immigrants) from Great Britain and Europe through Cuba to the United States between 1920 and the end of Prohibition. Because of their proximity to liquor-exporting islands, the numerous beaches along the southern coast presented ideal landing points for smugglers and distribution points for their supply networks. From the warehouses of liquor wholesalers in Havana to the decks of rum runners to transportation networks heading northward, Dorr explores these operations, from the people who ran the trade to the determined efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies to stop liquor traffic on the high seas, in Cuba, and in southern communities. In the process, she shows the role smuggling played in creating a more transnational, enterprising, and modern South.

The New Old Bar is a collection of 200 great classic cocktail recipes that takes the fear out of entertaining and demystifies the party-throwing experience. Much more than an assortment of vintage cocktails (plus 25 terrific small dishes to enjoy while you drink them), The New Old Bar is a how-to manual on bringing mid-century cocktail culture to your home bar. Authors Steve McDonagh and Dan Smith comprise the Chicago restaurant and catering duo known as The Hearty Boys, who were the winners of the very first series of The Next Food Network Star. The Hearty Boys have catered events for President Barack Obama, and they have fed notables from Oprah Winfrey to Hillary Clinton. In this fun and beautifully photographed book, McDonagh and Smith tell readers about the proper tools needed for hosting successful cocktail parties, including vital information on bar setup, equipment needs, and proper shaking and blending techniques. The Hearty Boys have charmed the country with their breezy, insouciant take on food and entertaining, and now they bring the same warmth, humor, and easy expertise to the world of classic cocktails. Drink up!

The author of Haunted New Orleans digs up NOLA’s long and lawless history—from pirates and prostitutes to mobsters and murderers. Since as early as the 1700s, New Orleans has been a city filled with sin and vice. Those first pioneering citizens of the Big Easy were thieves, vagabonds, and criminals of all kinds. By the time Louisiana fell under American control, New Orleans had become a city of debauchery and corruption camouflaged by decadence. It was also considered one of the country’s most dangerous cities, with a reputation of crime and loose morals. Rampant gambling and prostitution were the norm in nineteenth-century New Orleans, and over one-third of today’s French Quarter was considered a hotbed of sin. Tales in this volume include that of the notorious Axeman who plagued the streets of the Crescent City in the early 1900s and Kate Townsend, a prostitute who was murdered by her own lover, a man who later was awarded her inheritance. Troy Taylor takes a look back at New Orleans’s early wicked days and historic crimes. Includes photos

Over the past decade, the popularity of cocktails has returned with gusto. Amateur and professional mixologists alike have set about recovering not just the craft of the cocktail, but also its history, philosophy, and culture. The Shaken and the Stirred features essays written by distillers, bartenders and amateur mixologists, as well as scholars, all examining the so-called 'Cocktail Revival' and cocktail culture. Why has the cocktail returned with such force? Why has the cocktail always acted as a cultural indicator of class, race, sexuality and politics in both the real and the fictional world? Why has the cocktail revival produced a host of professional organizations, blogs, and conferences devoted to examining and reviving both the drinks and habits of these earlier cultures?

Featuring hundreds of cocktail bars in dozens of cities across the United States and around the world, Destination: Cocktails is the traveler’s guide to the craft cocktail movement. From New York to Los Angeles and London to Tokyo, this book is the ultimate reference to a network of fantastic bars providing their customers with only the best in gourmet beverages. Destination: Cocktails explores a variety of venues, and features urban lounges, dive bars, and five-star hotels alike. Some locations are brand new, and some have been serving drinks since the 19th century. What do they have in common? They all make quality cocktails, crafted with care, using only the best ingredients. For a bar to be included in this distinguished guide, all that mattered was what was in the glass. With drink reviews, insightful interviews with the proprietors and mixologists, fascinating historical trivia, and a bonus recipe section, Destination: Cocktails is an unrivaled reference book for the craft cocktail enthusiast. Your ultimate cocktail crawl begins here and now—don’t forget to send us a postcard!