Description

The unexpected and unexplored ways that ice has transformed a nationfrom the foods Americans eat to the sports they play to the way they live todayand what its future might look like on a swiftly warming planet

Ice is everywhere in gas stations in restaurants in hospitals in our homes Americans think nothing of dropping a few ice cubes into tall glasses of tea to ward off the heat of a hot summer day Most refrigerators owned by Americans feature automatic ice machines Ice ondemand has so revolutionized modern life that its easy to forget that it wasnt always this wayand to overlook what aspects of society might just melt away as the planet warms

In Ice journalist and historian Amy Brady shares the strange and storied twohundredyearold history of ice in America from the introduction of mixed drinks on the rocks to the nations firstever indoor ice rink to how delicacies like ice creams and iced tea revolutionized our palates to the ubiquitous ice machine in every motel across the US But Ice doesnt end in the past Brady also explores the surprising presentday uses of ice in sports medicine and sustainable energyincluding cuttingedge cryotherapy breastcancer treatments and new refrigerator technologies that may prove to be more energy efficientunderscoring how precious this commodity is especially in an age of climate change