Why read Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris?

Book cover of Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Book description

Adding a new dimension to the history of mentalites and the study of popular culture, Thomas Brennan reinterprets the culture of the laboring classes in old-regime Paris through the rituals of public drinking in neighborhood taverns. He challenges the conventional depiction of lower-class debauchery and offers a reassessment of popular…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mack P. Holt

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Taverns and public houses have long been accused by the pious and elite guardians of public welfare as being primarily dens of iniquity where the poor could get inebriated, misbehave, and escape their misery in drunken disorder. Brennan shows very clearly that despite the obvious problem of drunkenness for some, for the majority drinking a glass or two of wine together with friends and neighbors was really about sharing, belonging, sociability, and above all, a place for social exchange. Wine can be a lubricant, to be sure, but it is also an astringent that binds us together.

From Mack's list on The best books on French wine, history, and culture.