Keď premýšľame o minulosti, zvyčajne hľadáme politické, spoločenské, ekonomické či prírodné príčiny historických udalostí a vývoja ľudských spoločností. Bolo by však chybou zabúdať na jedného konkrétneho všadeprítomného hýbateľa dejín – alkohol.
Alkohol sa v prírode vyskytuje prirodzene, ale našťastie pre zvieratá, sa nevyskytuje v takom množstve, aby sa mohli opíjať do bezvedomia. Táto „vymoženosť“ bola dopriata iba ľuďom, hoci aj mnohé zvieratá alkohol vo svojom prírodnom prostredí úmyselne vyhľadávajú. Ľudia, ktorí sa zo živočíšnej ríše vymanili, však obľubujú alkohol od pradávna. Najskôr ho takisto ako oheň iba nachádzali, neskôr[...]
By the author of the Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller The EtymologiconAlmost 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… ...
By the author of the Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller The EtymologiconAlmost 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.
