{"product_id":"empire-of-vines-erica-hannickel-9780812245592","title":"Empire of Vines: Wine Culture in America","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe lush, sun-drenched vineyards of California evoke a romantic, agrarian image of winemaking, though in reality the industry reflects American agribusiness at its most successful. Nonetheless, as author Erica Hannickel shows, this fantasy is deeply rooted in the history of grape cultivation in America. \u003ci\u003eEmpire of Vines\u003c\/i\u003e traces the development of wine culture as grape growing expanded from New York to the Midwest before gaining ascendancy in California--a progression that illustrates viticulture's centrality to the nineteenth-century American projects of national expansion and the formation of a national culture. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eEmpire of Vines\u003c\/i\u003e details the ways would-be gentleman farmers, ambitious speculators, horticulturalists, and writers of all kinds deployed the animating myths of American wine culture, including the classical myth of Bacchus, the cult of \u003ci\u003eterroir\u003c\/i\u003e, and the fantasy of pastoral republicanism. Promoted by figures as varied as horticulturalist Andrew Jackson Downing, novelist Charles Chesnutt, railroad baron Leland Stanford, and Cincinnati land speculator Nicholas Longworth (known as the father of American wine), these myths naturalized claims to land for grape cultivation and legitimated national expansion. Vineyards were simultaneously lush and controlled, bearing fruit at once culturally refined and naturally robust, laying claim to both earthy authenticity and social pedigree. The history of wine culture thus reveals nineteenth-century Americans' fascination with the relationship between nature and culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Erica Hannickel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0812245598\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812245592\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pennsylvania Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/01\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2014","brand":"Erica Hannickel","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44120293540095,"sku":"9780812245592","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_71aad0b1-a791-4c28-b5b1-099e33b14d28.jpg?v=1687413555","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/empire-of-vines-erica-hannickel-9780812245592","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}