With more than 50 distilleries in the state, bourbon is as synonymous with Kentucky as horses and basketball. As one of the commonwealth's signature industries, bourbon distilling has influenced the landscape and heritage of the region for more than two centuries. Blending several topics including tax revenue, railroads, the mechanics of brewing, geography, landscapes, and architecture, this primer and geographical guide presents a detailed history of the development of Kentucky's distilling industry.

Based on extensive archival research that includes private paper collections, newspapers, and period documents, this work places the distilling process in its environmental, geographical, and historical context. Bourbon's Backroads reveals the places where bourbon's heritage was made from old and new distilleries, storage warehouses, railroad yards, and factories where copper fermenting vessels are made and why the industry continues to thrive.

The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"This book gives us something to read and relish, ideally with an appropriate tumbler of the subject at hand." (Paul F. Starrs, author of Let the Cowboy Ride)

"Geographers, historians, and whiskey aficionados will want to savor this book." (Warren R. Hofstra, Shenandoah University in Virginia)

"Insights into our past that only a gifted and seasoned writer like Raitz can impart." (Geoffrey L. Buckley, coeditor of The American Environment Revisited)