Description
Book SynopsisA delightful history of cocktails from the era of new interstate highways, sprouting suburbs, and atomic engineeringAmerica at midcentury was a nation on the move, taking to wings and wheels along the new interstate highways and in passenger jets that soared to thirty thousand feet. Anxieties rippled, but this new Atomic Age promised cheap power and future wonders, while the hallmark of the era was the pleasure of an evening imbibing cocktails in mixed company, a middle-class idea of sophisticated leisure. This new age, stretching from the postWorld War II baby boom years through the presidency of General Dwight Eisenhower into the increasingly volatile mid-1960s, promised affordable homes for those who had never dreamed of owning property and an array of gleaming appliances to fill them. For many, this was America at its bestinnovation, style, and the freedom to enjoy oneselfand the spirit of this time is reflected in the whimsical cocktails that rose to prominence: tiki drinks, Mosco
Trade ReviewCecelia Tichi writes about literature and culture with verve. At once a guide to vintage drinks and a brisk chronicle detailing the fashions and fissions of the Atomic Age,
Midcentury Cocktails is Tichi’s best cocktail book yet. -- Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald, authors of America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking
A charming blend of 1950s consumer and media culture whose stories orbit around the whimsical cocktails of the times. At once nostalgic, informative, and delightful. -- Gary Cross, author of Consumed Nostalgia: Memory in the Age of Fast Capitalism
Illustrations and recipe lists accompany each chapter; these are visual, flavorful ways to engage with the book’s cultural history lessons. Some of the recipes assume access to special ingredients like orzata and falernum, but one imagines that, in the generous American spirit of adventurousness, mixologists can improvise as needed.
Midcentury Cocktails is a delightful, nostalgic trip through the 1950s and 1960s with recipes for recreating Atomic Age intoxications. * Foreword *
Some of the cocktails that we all know and love today—Moscow mules, sea breezes, gin fizzes—have their roots in midcentury America, when jets first crowded the skies and cars hit newly paved highways. Ahead of New Year’s, Cecelia Tichi takes us on an alcoholic tour. * Air Mail *
Tichi portrays the postwar era and all its confidence and enthusiasm with recipes of drinks that fueled the times. … an entertaining, playful view of life in this era and how the drinks culture fed into it. * Library Journal *
