America is the land of reinvention, and the cocktail has always been a way to reinvent old, established formulas, to make drinking more civilized. This book celebrates touchstones of cocktailing, drinks that endured and survived Prohibition, nurtured by the imagination and craft of dedicated barmen. To illustrate the link between past and present, author Michael Turback examines 88 vintage recipes - each with a forgotten story, each in its own way a forerunner of modern mixology.