Supports a systems account of bourbon's origins: agriculture, transport, finance, and markets mattered more than inventor mythology.
Cowdery moves from household and farm production to the beginnings of an export economy, distinguishing gradual development from a single founding event.
Early Kentucky settlers converted abundant corn into whiskey because grain was difficult to transport, distilling preserved value, and whiskey circulated as a portable trade commodity. Commercial scale emerged gradually as capital, transport, and eastern market access expanded.
Chapter 1, “The Roots of Bourbon Whiskey in America”
Chapter 1, “The Roots of Bourbon Whiskey in America”
Verified against extracted page text and the rendered PDF on 2026-08-27. Every rendered sheet was visually inspected; exact normalized-text comparison established that PDF sheets 140–275 duplicate sheets 4–139 and sheets 387–399 duplicate sheet 386. This record cites the first or unique occurrence; the split locator at pp. 137–139 and 276–280 is explicitly noted where applicable. Reader crosswalk checked 2026-09-16 against the supplied ebook headings and cited passage: Chapter 1, “The Roots of Bourbon Whiskey in America”. Original internal coordinates: PDF p. 18; PDF p. 22. PDF positions and legacy Page are internal provenance, not print pagination; any earlier PDF-only citation policy is superseded. September 29 fresh audit: all unique text, bibliography and complete index read;399sheets visually surveyed and8details enlarged. Correct duplicate map:140–178=4–42;179=49;180–185=43–48;186–275=50–139. Final387–399 repeat final index content with OCR/navigation differences, not all exact normalized-text matches. PDF sheet coordinates are not print pages.
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Reader locator: Chapter 1, “The Roots of Bourbon Whiskey in America”
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