The National Prohibition Act was no match for Hamtramck. Once a small farming village, Hamtramck grew to be a major industrial city in just a decade. With that came enormous social problems and a peculiar concept that the legality of alcohol wasn't a constraint but, rather, an opportunity. Flaunting the infamous law became a way of life in Hamtramck, where it was as easy to get a drink as an ice cream cone. Paddy McGraw proudly ran his speakeasy and brothel with impunity. Mayors Peter Jezewski and Rudolph Tenerowicz were sent to prison for violations but were rewarded by the public. Join author Greg Kowalski as he delves into Hamtramck's raucous prohibition history.

After World War II, suburbs proliferated around California cities as returning soldiers traded in their uniforms for business suits. After-hours leisure activities took on an island-themed sensuality that bloomed from a new fascination with Polynesia and Hawaii. Movies and television shows filmed in Malibu and Burbank urged viewers to escape everyday life with the likes of Gidget and Hawaiian Eye. Restaurants like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's sprang up to answer the demand for wild cocktails and even wilder décor. The culture--a strange hodgepodge of idols, torches, lush greenery and colorful drinks--beckoned men and women to lose themselves in exotic music and surf tunes. Authors Jason Henderson and Adam Foshko explore the state's midcentury fascination with all things Tiki.

New England food and drinks writer Corin Hirsch explores the origins and taste of the favorite potations of early Americans and offers some modern-day recipes to revive them today.

Colonial New England was awash in ales, beers, wines, cider and spirits. Everyone from teenage farmworkers to our founding fathers imbibed heartily and often. Tipples at breakfast, lunch, teatime and dinner were the norm, and low-alcohol hard cider was sometimes even a part of children's lives. This burgeoning cocktail culture reflected the New World's abundance of raw materials: apples, sugar and molasses, wild berries and hops. This plentiful drinking sustained a slew of smoky taverns and inns--watering holes that became vital meeting places and the nexuses of unrest as the Revolution brewed.

Discover the tricks of the trade: smuggling the liquor and evading the law. Learn of the dealings of "the Real McCoy." In this history of Prohibition in south Florida, author Sally J. Ling explores the impact of bootleggers and moonshiners on Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe Counties, presenting tales of rumrunning and lawbreaking as told through personal and written accounts.

Many of the North Jersey Shore towns we know today began as quiet retreats for pious New Yorkers wishing to escape the vice and crime of the city.

Towns such as Long Branch, Ocean Grove, Red Bank, and Atlantic Highlands all got their start like this, but with the passage of Prohibition in 1919, the region became a haven for criminals who began smuggling liquor through the serene seaside. Speakeasies sprang up on virtually every corner, as gangsters like Vito Genovese, Charles "Lucky'? Luciano, and Meyer Lansky ruled this brutal underworld, while civilians were caught in the crossfire of gun battles between rival syndicates. Discover the true drama that captured the Jersey Shore during Prohibition.

In 1929, it was estimated that every week bootleggers brought twenty-two thousand gallons of whiskey, moonshine and other spirits into Washington, D.C.'s three thousand speakeasies. H.L. Mencken called it the thirteen awful years, "? though it was sixteen for the District. Nevertheless, the bathtub gin, swilling capital dwellers made the most of Prohibition. Author Garrett Peck crafts a rollicking history brimming with stories of vice, topped off with vintage cocktail recipes and garnished with a walking tour of former speakeasies. Join Peck as he explores an underground city ruled not by organized crime but by amateur bootleggers, where publicly teetotaling congressmen could get a stiff drink behind House office doors and the African American community of U Street was humming with a new sound called jazz."