Straight Up or on the Rocks: A Cultural History of American Drink

America ``expresses its character in a thousand seemingly trivial but potent messages. . . . One of them is the cocktail.'' Here Grimes, a New York Times reporter, considers the meaning of the message conveyed to Americans by ``flashy, vulgar drink.'' His brief and witty history, with recipes (e.g., rhubarb highball; ``the unexpected''), traces popular taste from the Mayflower (which carried beer kegs, among other provisions) to the ``rococo'' fare of the genre's heyday at the turn of the century, and continues to the contemporary era, considering the likes and dislikes of yuppies (``Fussy and particular, the yuppie turned out to have a whim of iron''). This is a suitably sparkling introductory overview, not a full history with footnotes; Grimes entertains as he informs, with the flair and the good manners of a happy-hour host. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Apr.)