Tar Heel lightnin' : how secret stills and fast cars made North Carolina the moonshine capital of the world / Daniel S. Pierce.

Author/creator Pierce, Daniel S. author.
Format Book
PublicationChapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2019]
Descriptionpages cm
Subjects

Contents Introduction. White lightnin' -- Whiskey's 'golden era' in North Carolina -- From distiller to blockader to moonshiner -- Normalizing the moonshiner -- A 'dry' state -- Modern moonshine -- North Carolinians 'hard at work making that stuff that splits the heads of many' -- Chasing the moon -- National prohibition in North Carolina -- Moonshine kingpins and moonshine capitals -- Prohibition, moonshine, and North Carolina culture -- 1941 to 1970: the heyday of the moonshine syndicate -- The road to thunder road -- North Carolina moonshine, NASCAR, and the 'bootlegger tracks' -- The end of an era -- Moonshine revival.
Abstract "From the late nineteenth century well into the 1960s, North Carolina boasted some of the nation's most restrictive laws on alcohol production and sale. For much of this era, it was also the nation's leading producer of bootleg liquor. Over the years, written accounts, popular songs, and Hollywood movies have turned the state's moonshiners, fast cars, and frustrated Feds into legends. But in Tar Heel Lightnin', Daniel S. Pierce tells the real history of moonshine in North Carolina as never before. This well-illustrated, entertaining book introduces a surprisingly varied cast of characters who operated secret stills and ran liquor from the swamps of the Tidewater to Piedmont forests and mountain coves. From the state's earliest days through Prohibition to the present, Pierce shows that moonshine crossed race and economic lines, linking men and women, the rebellious and the respectable, the oppressed and the merely opportunistic. As Pierce recounts, even churchgoing types might run shipments of 'that good ol' mountain dew' when hard times came and there was no social safety net to break the fall"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Genre/formHistory.
LCCN 2019014008
ISBN9781469653556 (cloth ; alk. paper)
ISBN1469653559
ISBN(ebook)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner NC Stacks HJ5021 .P54 2019 ✔ Available Place Hold
Joyner NC Stacks HJ5021 .P54 2019 ✔ Available Place Hold