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A short history of drunkenness / Mark Forsyth.

by Forsyth, Mark.

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Alcoholic beverages -- History.

Absinthe -- Social aspects.

Drinking customs -- History.

Temperance -- History.

Prohibition -- History.

9780241297681 (hc.)

247 p. ; 21 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Evolution -- The prehistory of drinking -- Sumerian bars -- Ancient Egypt -- The Greek symposium -- Ancient Chinese drinking -- The Bible -- The Roman convivium -- The Dark Ages -- Drinking in the Middle East -- The Viking sumbl -- The medieval alehouse -- The Aztecs -- The gin craze -- Australia -- The wild west saloon -- Russia -- Prohibition.

"Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day's work. It can send you to sleep, or send you into battle. A Short History of Drunkenness traces humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition, answering every possible question along the way: What did people drink? How much? Who did the drinking? Of the many possible reasons, why? On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at how Greeks got giddy and Romans got rat-arsed, and find out how bars in the Wild West were never quite like in the movies. This is a history of the world at its inebriated best."

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