Bottoms Up showcases the architecture and history of 70 Wisconsin breweries and bars. Beginning with inns and saloons, the book explores the rise of breweries, the effects of temperance and Prohibition, and attitudes about gender, ethnicity, and morality. It traces the development of the megabreweries, dominance of the giants, and the emergence of microbreweries. Contemporary photographs of unusual and distinctive bars of all eras, historic photos, postcards, advertisements, and breweriana help tell the story of how Wisconsin came to dominate brewing—and the place that bars and taverns hold in our social and cultural history.

Jim Draeger is an architectural historian and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer at the Wisconsin Historical Society with more than twenty-five years of historic preservation experience. From roadside architecture to Northwoods resorts, Draeger celebrates the importance of ordinary buildings to our daily lives through his research, writing, and lectures. He has celebrated the history and lore of Wisconsin taverns since his childhood. He shares a historic 1936 International-style house in Monona with his wife, Cindy.

Mark Speltz is a senior historian at American Girl and recently completed a master’s degree in public history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He previously worked as an independent researcher on exhibits for museums, including the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and has authored several articles for the Wisconsin Magazineof History. He lives in Madison with his wife, Kari, and daughter, Marie.

Mark Fay of Eau Claire has completed six book projects for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, photographing historic gas stations, opera houses, cemeteries, dairy farmers, and murals for a children’s book on the Great Peshtigo Fire. He has worked as an aerial photographer, a staff photographer for a postcard and calendar printing company, and has been in business as Faystrom Photo since 1996.