The French 75

Iconic New Orleans Cocktails

by John Maxwell Hamilton

136 Pages / 5.00 x 7.00 x 0.56 in / 14 color images

Hardcover

9780807181768

Published: April 2024

$19.95

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In The French 75, John Maxwell Hamilton tracks down the many lives of this protean cocktail. The drink, named by French propagandists during World War I, was said to pack a punch as powerful as that nation’s celebrated 75 mm cannon. At the end of the century, the French 75 surfaced at Arnaud’s Restaurant and became as entrenched in New Orleans as the famed second line. Hamilton explores the kaleidoscopic variety of the French 75 over the years and across continents.

John Maxwell Hamilton, a former journalist and government official, is the Hopkins P. Breazeale LSU Foundation Professor of Journalism in the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU and a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He has authored or edited many books, including Journalism’s Roving Eye and Manipulating the Masses, both of which won the Goldsmith Book Prize.

“A delightfully written, thoroughly researched yarn that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It will have you breaking out the spirits and barware to compare historic versions of this exalted cocktail in short order.” ~Brian Robinson, proprietor and chief educator, The Wormwood Society

“What can be said about a relatively obscure cocktail like the French 75? As it happens, quite a lot, and brilliantly so! John Maxwell Hamilton brought to bear his considerable research chops and writing skills and has given the cocktail world a book that is erudite, scholarly, and vastly entertaining.” ~Wayne Curtis, spirits writer and author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails

“The French 75 is a staple for events at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, and in homes and bars across the globe. John Maxwell Hamilton does a great job in tracing the origins of the cocktail, in its many variations, and mixing it with the history of the Great War. The book is a fascinating blend of history and cocktail culture, and it is sure to appeal to anyone who loves both.” ~Matthew C. Naylor, president and CEO, National WWI Museum and Memorial

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