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Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times | 
 enlarge | Authors: Don Kladstrup, Petie Kladstrup
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $4.13
You Save: $9.82 (70%)
New (51) Used (31) from $3.00
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 125308
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 006073793X
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780060737931
ASIN: 006073793X
Publication Date: December 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New & Unread Book with Remainder Marked- May Have Slight Handling Wear From Bookstore Shelf- Instock For Immediate Shipping
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Product Description
Throughout history, waves of invaders have coveted the northeast corner of France: Attila the Hun in the fifth century, the English in the Hundred Years War, the Prussians in the nineteenth century. Yet this region – which historians say has suffered more battles and wars than any other place on earth – is also the birthplace of one thing the entire world equates with good times, friendship and celebration: champagne. Champagne is the story of the world's favourite wine. It tells how a sparkling beverage that became the toast of society during the Belle Epoque emerged after World War I as a global icon of fine taste and good living. The book celebrates the gutsy, larger–than–life characters whose proud determination nurtured and preserved the land and its grapes throughout centuries of conflict.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 An interesting angle on history September 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Champagne's role in history - a fascinating read. I learned a lot.
Unfortunately, some of the "facts" presented in the book seem to be stretches. For example, here's a quote from the book:
"Champagne was a patchwork of warring fiefdoms whose leaders kept the province in constant turmoil....In 1095 Pope Urban declared "Let those who until now have been moved only to fight their fellow Christians now take up arms against the infidel." With these words, the First Crusade began. His call for a holy war struck a particularly responsive chord with his fellow Champenois, as warlords and others put aside differences and set off for Jerusalem, accompanied by their armies and retinues."
The book suggests this was the convenient excuse to invade another country -- to prevent fighting among themselves at home.
 Silly Nonsense March 1, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I found this book--which I finally threw down unfinished in irritation after the umpteenth faux "fact" was presented--trite beyond belief. I presume that a history is factual. This was not. The authors presented so much factually wrong, unsupported information and claims that I finally decided I could not justify spending more time reading it. For instance, they claim that both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette drank champagne with a last meal before their executions. Well, Louis did enjoy a fairly good meal--without champagne--before his execution. Marie Antoinette, however, was so brutally treated and degraded by her captors as the Widow Capet before hers that there most assuredly was no "last meal" for her, much less a champagne chaser. Her maid recounted the details of her prevailing upon her to eat a few mouthfuls of some vermicelli which she warmed up on her stove in her cell. If she drank anything it was water--likely from the nearby and very polluted Seine. Anyone offering her champagne would have most certainly ended up being arrested for royalist sympathies. With all the many fine sources out there on both of these executionsw, how can the Kladstrups get away with printing such trite, factually wrong drivel merely to add some silly patina of faux glamour to their thesis? Then they go on to describe the aristocrats being guillotined, describing how the victims were forced to kneel and put their heads on the block. Have the Kladstrups even the remotest familiarity with how a guillotine works?? There is no block. There is no kneeling. There is no cooperation by the victim whatsoever. Read any source on the topic. Yet again, the Kladstrups trot out rubbish which is not even factually close to correct. Their description of the executions of Desmoulins and Danton--whom they falsely claim were drunk and singing a drinking song as they awaited their executions--round out this litany of utterly fabricated nonsense by which they attempt to link champagne to just about every event in French history. So. With so much drivel and made up "fact", how can one trust, much less enjoy, any of their other assertions in this so-called history? Definitely a candidate for recycling--or the outhouse.
 Fascinating history of Champagne January 28, 2007
A well-written and easy-to-read story of the Champagne region and its wines. My copy of this book has been enjoyed by both drinkers and non-drinkers, but if the former you're get more out of it. Best read with a glass of cold Champagne in hand!
 Bubbling over! January 9, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is well written, informative and witty. It is well-sourced, but the actual references are relegated to the end of the book. The style is like listening to a very knowledgeable, engaging person talk about a subject he/she loves.
New Year's Eve every day June 12, 2006
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I wasn't certain I would like this book. On one hand, the subject matter is one of my favorites: I could easily drink champagne every day of my life - that is if it were a sensible thing to do and wouldn't pose health risks. There is another matter to the book, though, that scared me off a bit - quite a bit of talk about war. It's never been my favorite subject.
But I found here, in these pages, not stories of war, but a glowing testament to the courage of the people, not only the Champenois but so many more. They would die before allowing anyone to take both Champagne and champagne from them. I read, astonished, stories during the WWI of vineyard workers capping bottles, riddling, conducting all processes necessary to the making of champagne in deep underground tunnels, as bomb shells exploded directly above their heads.
Personally, I would have enjoyed to hear more about champagne (the beverage), but that wasn't the topic of the book. As another reviewer noted, it did end rather abruptly, but that was as it should be. The subtitle of this book is "How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times". As Champagne hasn't been attacked since WWII, there really wasn't anything more to talk about.
We were lead through all of the battles, from the Huns who lost a battle they should have handily won through World War II. We saw politicking, and also how champagne came to be the wondrous beverage it is today. Reading about the "big" houses who began so long ago and still stand tall today was fascinating reading.
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