The Second Oldest Profession: An Informal History of Moonshining in America

by Jess Carr

The Second Oldest Profession: An Informal History of Moonshining in America

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

A native of southwest Virginia, Jess Carr lived and worked among the mountain people most of his life. He was a graduate of Coyne Technical School in Chicago, and served with the Marine Corps during the Korean War. Before be began his full-time writing career, Mr. Carr held a variety of jobs including country store-keeper, part-time barber, lumberjack, and president of a commercial printing firm.

Reviews

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Second Oldest Profession: An Informal History of Moonshining in America by Jess Carr (Prentice-Hall 1972)(364.133). This seems to be the complete history as billed. Every angle and every facet of moonshine history is reviewed. Farmers had to process fruit from their orchards and grains from their fields. The simplest way to process, store, and transport those crops to often very remote markets: in liquid form! According to this book, the moonshiners were often the “kings of their counties.” This is a fun read. My rating: 7/10, finished 2007.

[Paul Bauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read this for somewhat personal reasons. I hung out w/ a moonshiner when I lived in the mountains of NC (what that man did w/ a load peaches that were about to turn bordered on the religious). And my uncle was an ATF agt in the Midwest who came to know most offenders on a first name basis. So I picked up a few stories from both cat and mouse.