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  • A Short History of Drunkenness

  • Written by: Mark Forsyth
  • Narrated by: Richard Hughes
  • Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)

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A Short History of Drunkenness

Written by: Mark Forsyth
Narrated by: Richard Hughes
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Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth, read by Sh*tfaced Shakespeare's Richard Hughes.

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.

©2017 Mark Forsyth (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Food & Wine Great Britain United States
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A Little Too Short

Overall a fantastic book with an amazing performance by the reader. The reader was truly able to demonstrate the dry British Monty Python type humour. My only issue with the book was the way it was compressed. Chronologically and Geographically you jump around throughout each chapter, I know the author was mainly representing cultural aspects of drinking, but it lead to me feeling no relation to the culture from a topical point of view. What Im saying is the book just sums up the ways different people drank throughout history. It is written with a light funny tone, and a laid-back storytelling experience.

TL;DR This book is intended for those that like a fun twist on telling history. People who enjoy a more in depth explicit telling of history may not enjoy it as much.

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