Drunk, How we Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization – Edward Slingerland

Thoughts

Immediately from the opening sentence in the book, you know you are in for a ride. What felt like a couple of college kids writing an essay to on a topic that they didn’t want to write, and then ended up falling in love with. That’s how I perceived this tale from start to finish. It makes you smile, laugh, think, and teaches you all about alcohol. I mean all about alcohol. You learn about the chemistry, history, modern tales, health impacts, history of the influence in cultures, and tons of reasons why we do certain things with alcohol.

The book takes you through the tales, legends, myths whatever you want to call them about alcohol and it’s influence since the beginning of time. It’s one of the few things that we as a species have been good at drinking, and figuring out how to make. It’s an interesting book when you think it’ll just be about the history of getting drink, when in actuality, it’s a complete deep dive into ALL things alcohol. Not to mention there are citations and sources with every chapter in the book. The bibliography is a quarter of the size of the book anyway! Everything is backed up with some research or other articles. Like I said it felt like a college project, that captured the interests of everyone on the team, to learn everything possible about alcohol.

Edward thanks his team from researchers, writers, historians, and many others that helped culminate the entire knowledge of this book on alcohol. They cover wine, beer, liquor and it’s importance in so many roles in all parts of the world and civilization. It’s an interesting read, and will teach you a thing a thing or two alcohol, how the world was shaped by it, and some factoids you can throw around at your next party.

If you are looking for a book that breaks up the monotony of a classic history, or educational book I recommend, taking this one for a spin. While some chapters can feel like they drag on, it’s because they are packed with so much information. If you are looking to consume all you can about alcohol pick this one up!