A Short history of drunkenness
Subtitle: how, why, where, and when humankind has gotten merry from the stone age to the present
By: Mark Forsyth
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780525575375
Subjects: Temperance; Absinthe; Alcoholic beverages; Social aspects; Proshibition; Drinking customs; History
Description: "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 Brief History of Drunkenness traces humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition and modern Japanese Nomikai. On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at the beer King Midas was buried with, and attempt to resist the urge to try the Aztecs' alcoholic hot chocolate. From Australia's only military coup - the Rum Rebellion - to the gin epidemic of eighteenth-century London, Forsyth elegantly presents a history of the world at its inebriated best."--Publisher's description.
Notes: "Originally published in Great Britain by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, London, in 2017."--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Evolution; title: The prehistory of drinking; title: Sumerian Bars; title: Ancient Egypt; title: The Greek symposium; title: Ancient Chinese drinking; title: The Bible; title: The Roman convivium; title: The Dark Ages; title: Drinking in the Middle East; title: The Viking sumbl; title: The Medieval alehouse; title: The Aztecs; title: The Gin craze; title: Australia; title: The WIld West saloon; title: Russia; title: Prohibition; title: Epilogue.