Is bourbon the quintessential American liquor? Bourbon is not just alcohol—the amber-colored drink is deeply ingrained in American culture and tangled in American history. From the early days of raw corn liquor to the myriad distilleries that have proliferated around the country today, bourbon is a symbol of the United States.

This course traces bourbon's entire history, from the 1700s, with Irish, Scottish, and French settlers setting up stills and making distilled spirits in the New World, through today's booming resurgence.

On their tour of bourbon's fascinating, turbulent, and uniquely American evolution, listeners will explore the mysterious origins of the whiskey’s name and meet the men and women who have been championed as its inventors and made it so popular - from Daniel Boone's cousin and Baptist minister Elijah Craig to Jacob Beam and Evan Williams.

Lectures

1. Bourbon—An American Story
2. Distillation and Seeking the Water of Life
3. European Whiskey and Whiskey Basics
4. Bourbon in Early America
5. Bourbon in the Civil War and After
6. Bourbon in the Early 20th Century
7. Bourbon and World War II
8. Bourbon in the 1970s and ’80s
9. The Golden Age of Bourbon: 1990–2011
10. The Present and Future of Bourbon