In today’s luxury whiskey era, Jim Beam bourbon may sit on the bottom shelf, but you will gain a newfound and meaningful respect for that bottle when you read what it meant to our soldiers in Vietnam. Following their return home from WWI, the four million veterans were a driving force in bringing about the Repeal. Many soldiers were convinced that the Volstead Act outlawing alcohol only passed because they were serving overseas and unavailable to oppose it. Tramazzo brings to light the crucial role soldiers played both in Prohibition and Repeal. Carrie Nation, one of the heroes of the temperance movement, lost her own husband, a Civil War veteran, to alcoholism. The subsequent national temperance movement leading to Prohibition was influenced largely by the demons these Civil War veterans lived with in the following years. Rampant alcohol abuses and soldiers fighting while seeing double lead the reader to question whether key battles were decided as a result. Did you know the current 53-gallon barrel was a direct result of conservation for the war effort? Did you know that names such as Bourbon, Louisville, Belle Meade and Versailles were a testament to our French allies who helped us forge our nation?Īlcohol’s impact on the Civil War cannot be overstated. Along the way, you’ll learn several interesting facts. From land grants to veterans to the violent conflict over the whiskey tax which further cemented the shift from east coast rye to Kentucky corn. Tramazzo details the handful of elements following the Revolutionary War that revved the engine of Kentucky’s golden commodity. The real substance is in the details, however, so be sure and make time to return to these sections. Each section on individuals begins with a short overview, so it can be flipped through magazine-style if you choose. The book is divided into sections: the first 64 pages a historical overview, the next 100 pages broken into chapters on key figures, and the final 20 pages focusing on craft distillers. This book doesn’t simply connect bourbon to our military- It literally connects bourbon to the course of American history.
Tramazzo has not only done his fellow servicemen proud, he has provided all of us with an original and valuable piece of work.
A celebrated author and military veteran himself, if Fred’s name is on something you can bet it’s meaningful to him. When I saw that Fred Minnick wrote the foreword, I knew this book wasn’t what I thought it would be. I follow Tramazzo ( Bourbonscout) on Instagram, but I wasn’t all that interested in a collection of stories where soldiers drank together. I am comfortable admitting that I likely wouldn’t have read Bourbon & Bullets: True Stores of Whiskey, War and Military Service if John Tramazzo hadn’t sent me a copy of it.
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