Book Review

Crytzer, Brady. The Whiskey Rebellion: A Distilled History of an American Crisis. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2023.

Prior historians have had difficulties dissuading the public that the United States emerged fully formed after the 1783 conclusion of the American War for Independence. In his new book on the 1791-5 Whiskey Rebellion, Pennsylvania historian Brady Crytzer ably demonstrates that disputes over the Revolution’s ideals continued a generation later and have not been entirely resolved today. Crytzer argues that the “Western Insurrection,” as it was identified in its day, was the largest uprising in American history until the Civil War. A new Alexander Hamilton-backed tax on whiskey sparked significant unrest and violence in the Ohio Country – the then-western frontier counties of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

A resident and expert on eighteenth-century Western Pennsylvania history, Professor Crytzer offers new and updated insights into a subject last addressed in a full-length monograph in 2006.[i] First, Crytzer cogently describes in approachable prose the complexity of the conflict between the majority Scots-Irish frontiers settlers attempting to eke out a hardscrabble living on small but productive grain-producing farms and more wealthy eastern elites and business owners. He offers a balanced view that does not condone violence or ascribe simplistic heroes or villains. Crytzer lucidly describes the clash of various factions and interests using the metaphor of the whiskey-making process. The book is creatively divided into three sections, which conforms with the three products of a backcountry still. The first drippage from the still, the “head,” is dangerous to drink, representing the conflict’s initiation. The following liquid portion is labeled the “hearts,” which is the drinkable portion of a still’s output and is the insurrection’s uprising. The last drippings are the “tails,” which are regarded as undesirable to drink and symbolize the crushing of the rebellion by Federal troops.

Crytzer’s intimate knowledge of Western Pennsylvania is the second addition to previous scholarship. At the end of each chapter, the author adds a section, “Traveler’s Note,” in which he describes the location and current description of historic sites and structures. These sections add considerable interest, affording a comprehensive visitor travel guide and highlighting opportunities to enhance preservation. One of my favorite places is David Bradford’s well-preserved home in Washington, Pennsylvania. A key instigator of violence against Federal authorities, lawyer David Bradford, fled to Spanish territory rather than be captured by Federal troops. His durable stone house on the town square survived the insurrection and is now a museum.

The whiskey insurgents were eventually pardoned or forgiven, and the Federal whiskey tax did not endure. President John Adams issued pardons for the few prosecuted for violent acts, and President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation to end the detested tax a few years later. However, the peaceful conclusion did not end disputes between easterners and western residents, which continued until overwhelmed by the conflicts over slavery and the Civil War.

I highly recommend The Whiskey Rebellion as an eminently readable account of a complex dispute in the Early Republic which has implications today. Periodically, the United States has endured insurrections, providing problematic challenges, but each left the republic stronger. As the author validates, public history and preservation and interpretations of historic sites and structures are vital to understanding our past and gleaning lessons from preceding events and people. The Western Insurrection demonstrates that violence is not a solution to perceived problems, clemency is a powerful tool and that enduring change is best accomplished through the ballot box.

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[i] William Hogeland, The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty, A Lisa Drew Book (New York, NY: Scribner, 2006).