In invention of vodka.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Briefly Noted - Vodka: How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit Conquered America - Brief article - Book review

"By the nineteenth century, vodka had become the principal source of tax revenue for the Russian government, as much as 46 percent of the budget." Vodka: How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit Conquered America (Lyons) opens with a brief, bleak history of government attempts to control sales of the purest liquor known to man.

But the book, by The Weekly Standard's Victorino Matus (with whom I have enjoyed more than one cocktail), is really an account of the miracles wrought by good marketing, which converted a nation of brown liquor enthusiasts to deeply...