A tasty combination of commercial and culinary history reflecting the maturations of the wine business and Americans’ taste...
In an appropriate follow-up to The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution (2013), Curbed Boston founding editor Acitelli wades into the colorful history of American fine wine, showing how, in 2014, the United States surpassed France to become the largest wine market in the world.
After an account of Julia Child’s alteration of Americans’ taste and culinary habits, the author steps back in time to recount America’s tangled relationship with wine, which resulted from Prohibition and its repeal and the trends in the 1950s, when the sale of unremarkable, mass-produced wines reached a peak. Acitelli then depicts how fine wines, defined as “any drier, non-fortified wine, at any price point, made primarily from higher-end grape types that originated in Europe,” at first nudged, then slowly replaced the undistinguished American wines. In mostly chronological fashion, the author effectively pulls together the stories of a diverse cast of characters with innovations in winemaking and marketing as well as popular culture, illustrating how wine shifted from either an undistinguished drink or a rare and expensive treat to a mainstream grocery item. Acitelli cites the importance of early wine critics such as Robert Lawrence Balzer, whose Beverly Hills Citizen columns served as the beginnings of wine criticism; and Ruth Ellen Church, who wrote “the nation’s first weekly wine column in the Chicago Tribune.” The author digs into the histories of America’s early winemakers—e.g., the Gallo and Mondavi families—as well as lesser-known but important individuals in the winemaking world such as artisan Joe Heitz or viticulture researcher Albert Winkler. Acitelli also recalls the infamous wine competition known as the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the evolution of wine bars, and how the exploding interest in local foods and numerous wine bloggers have contributed to the popularity and ubiquity of fine wines in America’s culinary scene.
A tasty combination of commercial and culinary history reflecting the maturations of the wine business and Americans’ taste buds.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-56976-167-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's...
A fresh, provocative analysis of the debate on education and employment.
Up-and-coming economist Moretti (Economics/Univ. of California, Berkeley) takes issue with the “[w]idespread misconception…that the problem of inequality in the United States is all about the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99 percent.” The most important aspect of inequality today, he writes, is the widening gap between the 45 million workers with college degrees and the 80 million without—a difference he claims affects every area of peoples' lives. The college-educated part of the population underpins the growth of America's economy of innovation in life sciences, information technology, media and other areas of globally leading research work. Moretti studies the relationship among geographic concentration, innovation and workplace education levels to identify the direct and indirect benefits. He shows that this clustering favors the promotion of self-feeding processes of growth, directly affecting wage levels, both in the innovative industries as well as the sectors that service them. Indirect benefits also accrue from knowledge and other spillovers, which accompany clustering in innovation hubs. Moretti presents research-based evidence supporting his view that the public and private economic benefits of education and research are such that increased federal subsidies would more than pay for themselves. The author fears the development of geographic segregation and Balkanization along education lines if these issues of long-term economic benefits are left inadequately addressed.
A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's more profound problems.Pub Date: May 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-75011-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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