Gin (Broché)

Gin tastes like Christmas to some and rotten pine chips to others. Although early medical textbooks treated it as a healing agent, early alchemists (as well as their critics) claimed gin was a path to immortality—and also Satan's tool. In more recent times, the gin trade consolidated the commercial and political power of nations and prompted a social campaign against women. Gin has been used successfully as a defense for murder ; blamed for massive unrest in 18th-century England ; and advertised as an abortifacient.
From its harshest earliest form to the current smooth craft models, gin has played a powerful role in our culture—one that is arguably older, broader, and more complex than any other spirit.