How 1970s California created the modern world

In this book, George M. Taber recounts the seminal contest of the 1976 Paris Tasting and its far-reaching effects on the wine industry. Taber focuses on three gifted unknowns behind the winning wines: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. The book details how this event repositioned the industry and sparked a golden age for viticulture globally, with an eclectic cast of characters and magnificent settings.

This book provides an elegant synthesis of the American Revolution, integrating recent scholarship with classic questions about the period. Wood discusses the French-Indian War, the crisis within the British Empire, American resistance, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitutional Convention. He emphasizes the radical shift in sovereignty from monarchs to the people and the significance of republicanism in shaping American society and government. The book also addresses the broader political context and the complex, often ironic nature of the Revolution's history[1][2][4].