Dennis J. Pogue has written the definitive book on this topic, Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry (Harbour Books, 2011). Pogue has toiled many years at Mount Vernon, and is uniquely positioned to comment on Washington’s distillery. We supplied a lengthy review of Pogue’s book in the June 4, 2012 issue of the Weekly Standard magazine. (See here.) We enjoyed it, but we should note that Founding Spirits is no light read—it is an erudite, scholarly collection of essays deeply grounded in the historical record. It describes the centrality of alcoholic beverages in 18th century life,...
