Bourbon is not just alcohol--this amber-colored drink is deeply ingrained in American culture and tangled in American history.

From the early days of raw corn liquor to the myriad distilleries that have proliferated around the country today, bourbon has come to symbolize America.

In Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American Whiskey, award-winning spirits author Fred Minnick traces bourbon's entire history, from the 1700s with Irish, Scottish, and French settlers setting up stills and making distilled spirits in the New World through today's booming resurgence.