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The Golden Elixir of the West: Whiskey and the Shaping of America
The Golden Elixir of the Whiskey and the Shaping of America
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
248 pages, Hardcover
Published October 2, 2017
4 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Sherry Monahan
28 books35 followersSherry Monahan a.k.a. S.A. Monahan
Sherry became enchanted with food at a young age. Her paternal grandfather was cook at a lumber camp and her father and aunts and uncles loved to cook. She studied Home Economics in middle school and fell in love. When her modeling career didn’t take off, she turned back to cooking and studied restaurant management. She didn’t want to spend 100-120 hours per week in the kitchen, so she fuels her food passion by writing about it. She also has a love of good wine, some beer, and cocktails. She enjoys visiting wineries and distilleries and discovering new labels. Her creative cooking skills produce some tasty meals, but it also lends itself to mixing drinks. She loves trying old classics and concocting new ones.
She began her writing career when she combined her passion for food, travel, and history. She penned her first book, Taste of Tombstone, in 1998. That same passion landed her a monthly magazine column in 2009 when she began writing her food column in True West entitled, Frontier Fare.
Sherry is a culinary historian who enjoys researching the genealogy of food and spirits. While there’s still plenty to explore about frontier food, she’s expanding her culinary repertoire to include places and foods from all over America and beyond.
She holds memberships in the James Beard Foundation, the Author’s Guild, Single Action Shooting Society, and the Wild West History Association. She is the past president of Western Writers of America (2014-2016), a professional genealogist, an honorary Dodge City marshal, and a member of the Most Intrepid Western Author Posse.
Sherry became enchanted with food at a young age. Her paternal grandfather was cook at a lumber camp and her father and aunts and uncles loved to cook. She studied Home Economics in middle school and fell in love. When her modeling career didn’t take off, she turned back to cooking and studied restaurant management. She didn’t want to spend 100-120 hours per week in the kitchen, so she fuels her food passion by writing about it. She also has a love of good wine, some beer, and cocktails. She enjoys visiting wineries and distilleries and discovering new labels. Her creative cooking skills produce some tasty meals, but it also lends itself to mixing drinks. She loves trying old classics and concocting new ones.
She began her writing career when she combined her passion for food, travel, and history. She penned her first book, Taste of Tombstone, in 1998. That same passion landed her a monthly magazine column in 2009 when she began writing her food column in True West entitled, Frontier Fare.
Sherry is a culinary historian who enjoys researching the genealogy of food and spirits. While there’s still plenty to explore about frontier food, she’s expanding her culinary repertoire to include places and foods from all over America and beyond.
She holds memberships in the James Beard Foundation, the Author’s Guild, Single Action Shooting Society, and the Wild West History Association. She is the past president of Western Writers of America (2014-2016), a professional genealogist, an honorary Dodge City marshal, and a member of the Most Intrepid Western Author Posse.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 10, 2019
Whiskey and the west go together like bread and butter and Sherry spins a true tale of how important it was to the development of the west. She also shows how alcohol made the west both fun and dangerous. With many interesting facts and fun characters we lear how the gold elixir shaped not only the west but the U.S. Fun book and lots of fun facts. Well written and well worth the read.
October 19, 2017
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
The evolution of the American as precipitated by whiskey is not exactly a history lesson taught in elementary school. This book was ver informative and thoroughly researched, but certainly skews towards history buffs (especially those interested in the west) and whiskey aficionados.
The evolution of the American as precipitated by whiskey is not exactly a history lesson taught in elementary school. This book was ver informative and thoroughly researched, but certainly skews towards history buffs (especially those interested in the west) and whiskey aficionados.
January 16, 2023
Overly romanticized view of the western expansion of the US. Doesn't live up to the title, but rather shows that where people went, whiskey followed. But so did a lot of other things. A significant percentage of the book (40%?) is excerpts from articles or books written in the 19th century.
November 14, 2017
This book should not have been written only about whiskey. There was not enough material there to constitute a book. Most of the time the authors inserted long quotes and after a while my eyes drifted over them. I learned exactly two things from the book. 1. Whiskey was made into cocktails and 2. Utah's mormons even had a whiskey still. Everything else in the book was and has been covered before.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews