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A Brief History of Vice
- How Bad Behavior Built Civilization
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
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Publisher's summary
History has never been more fun - or more intoxicating.
Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women's rights to the beer that helped create - and destroy - South America's first empire. And Evans goes deeper than simply writing about ancient debauchery; he recreates some of history's most enjoyable (and most painful) vices and includes guides so you can follow along at home. You'll learn how to:
- Trip like a Greek philosopher
- Rave like your Stone Age ancestors
- Get drunk like a Sumerian
- Smoke a nose pipe like a pre-Columbian Native American
A celebration of the brave, drunken pioneers who built our civilization one seemingly bad decision at a time, A Brief History of Vice explores a side of the past that mainstream history books prefer to hide.
Critic reviews
“Mixing science, humor, and grossly irresponsible self-experimentation, Evans paints a vivid picture of how bad habits built the world we know and love.” (David Wong, author of John Dies at the End)
“Evans' goal is to investigate and illuminate the human tradition of merriment and debauchery, which he does with tact, humor, and insight.” (Publishers Weekly)
“An engaging and compelling assemblage of pop culture and cultural anthropology (pop cultural anthropology?), an exploration of the growth of civilization via things that our own culture has in many ways declared taboo. This is one of the more entertaining books, fiction or nonfiction, or whatever, that you'll read this year.” (Allen Adams, The Maine Edge)
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- Unabridged
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You're going to wish you never got this audiobook. Some facts are too terrifying to teach in school. Unfortunately, Cracked.com is more than happy to fill you in. Think you're going to choose whether or not to buy this book? Scientists say your brain secretly makes all your decisions 10 seconds before you even know what they are.
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Buenas fabulas de humor
- By Cynthia on 10-27-14
By: Cracked.com
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Drunk
- How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
- By: Edward Slingerland
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically grounded explanation for our love of alcohol.
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The equivalent of Harvey Weinstein writing a book why male dominated workplaces thrive
- By I Listen on 10-10-21
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A Short History of Drunkenness
- How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry from the Stone Age to the Present
- By: Mark Forsyth
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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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. Making stops all over the world, A Short History of Drunkenness traces humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to the 20th century.
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Wow!!
- By Ryan L. Waggoner on 02-03-23
By: Mark Forsyth
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Poisons
- From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean Calabar
- By: Peter Macinnis
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A wide-ranging and provocative look - teeming with little-known facts and engaging stories - at a subject of the direst interest. Poisons permeate our world. They are in the environment, the workplace, the home. They are in food, our favorite whiskey, medicine, well water. They have been used to cure disease as well as incapacitate and kill. They smooth wrinkles, block pain, stimulate, and enhance athletic ability. In this entertaining and fact-filled audiobook, science writer Peter Macinnis considers poisons in all their aspects. He recounts stories of the celebrated poisoners in history and literature....
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#MyNonFictionAddiction
- By EinsteinzVice on 11-07-19
By: Peter Macinnis
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Gulp
- Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside. Roach takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: The questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts?
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Funtastic Voyage
- By Mel on 04-05-13
By: Mary Roach
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Ask a Historian
- 50 Surprising Answers to Things You Always Wanted to Know
- By: Greg Jenner
- Narrated by: Dan Schreiber, Greg Jenner, Janina Ramirez, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Responding to fifty genuine questions from the public, Greg Jenner takes you on an entertaining tour through history from the Stone Age to the Swinging Sixties, revealing the best and most surprising stories, facts and historical characters from the past. From ancient joke books, African empires and the invention of meringues, to mummies, mirrors and menstrual pads—Ask A Historian is a deliciously amusing and informative smorgasbord of historical curiosities.
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best bonus content ever!
- By Matthew K Wendelken on 03-24-22
By: Greg Jenner
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Vodka is Vegan
- A Manifesto for Better Living and Not Being an A**hole
- By: Matt Letten, Phil Letten
- Narrated by: Phil Letten, Matt Letten
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the bros who are making vegan sexy (and making eating animals weird). Think you could never go vegan? Think again. As this smart, funny and persuasive manifesto makes clear, you're already 90 percent vegan anyway. That's right - you already love animals and are slowly but surely eating less meat than you used to. With the insider tips and inspiring stories in this book, you'll be ready to go whole hog (see what we did there?) and eat vegan for good.
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Honest review from a fellow vodka drinking vegan..
- By AmazonAddict on 06-28-18
By: Matt Letten, and others
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The Brewer's Tale
- A History of the World According to Beer
- By: William Bostwick
- Narrated by: Christopher Sutton
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
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The Brewer's Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer's quest to bring them - and their ancient, forgotten beers - back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place - in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.
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Good insights!
- By Michael on 03-08-16
By: William Bostwick
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Short Course in Beer
- An Introduction to Tasting and Talking About the World's Most Civilized Beverage
- By: Lynn Hoffman
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
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Straightforward and opinionated, Short Course in Beer is designed to turn the novice beer lover into an expert imbiber and the casual drinker into an enthusiast. Readers will come to understand the beauty of beer and the sources of its flavor, as well as learn which beers are worth our time and which are not. With tongue in cheek, the author examines beer's historical connections to the Crusades, the Hundred Years' War, and modern-day soccer riots. He talks frankly (and joyfully) about the effects of alcohol on the body and brain, he defends beer from its enemies, and ushers it out of the frat house and into the dining room.
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An Ok Beer Book
- By AppleCedAR on 10-21-13
By: Lynn Hoffman
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Flowers in the Blood
- The Story of Opium
- By: Jeff Goldberg, Dean Latimer, William Burroughs - introduction
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Opium has played a dramatic and varied role in human history, inspiring religious veneration, scientific exploration, the bitterest rancor, and the most fanciful ecstasy. Now, authors Jeff Goldberg and Dean Latimer have provided a complete, insightful history of opium. Flowers in the Blood lifts the veil of mystery that has surrounded opium down through the ages.
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OPIATE DECRIMINALIZATION
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 06-18-14
By: Jeff Goldberg, and others
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Whiskey Distilled
- A Populist Guide to the Water of Life
- By: Heather Greene
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lively and authoritative guide, Greene teaches listeners about whiskey and encourages them to make their own evaluations. Peppered with wry anecdotes drawn from her unusual life - and including recipes for delicious cocktails by some of today's most celebrated mixologists - Whiskey Distilled will be enthusiastically greeted by the whiskey curious as well as by journeymen whiskey drinkers thirsty to learn more about their beloved tipple.
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Buy the hard copy, skip the audio!
- By P Boz on 08-20-15
By: Heather Greene
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Alcohol Lied to Me - New Edition
- The Intelligent Escape from Alcohol Addiction
- By: Craig Beck
- Narrated by: Craig Beck
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Craig Beck is a well-regarded family man with two children, a nice home, and a successful media career; a director of several companies and at one time the trustee of a large children’s charity. Outwardly, Craig was a highly successful and functioning professional man in spite of a ‘two-bottles-of-wine-a-night" drinking habit. For 20 years he struggled to control his drinking, all the time refusing to label himself an alcoholic because he didn't believe he met the stereotypical image that the word portrayed.
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This method worked for me
- By Kindle Customer on 07-07-17
By: Craig Beck
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Mycophilia
- Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms
- By: Eugenia Bone
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
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In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
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Absolutely awful, insufferable, racist author
- By Rs 🦇 on 11-25-19
By: Eugenia Bone
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What listeners say about A Brief History of Vice
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Neuron
- 08-20-16
Funny and somewhat informative
Are you looking for a funny, somewhat decently researched book about sex and drugs and trash talking, with some trivia that will impress your friends and step by step guides to getting like people in ancient times? If that is what you seek, then this is the book for you.
In contrast to the impression one might get from the title, there is, admittedly with a few exceptions, little information on how the vices explored in the book have formed civilization. Sure, Churchill and Stalin, who couldn't stand each other, became BFFs after getting drunk together and then they planned their invasion of their common enemy. I'll also grant that coffee is good for alertness which I suppose maybe results in a better civilization, but the author doesn't tell us how BDSM, getting high from mushrooms, or salamander brandy has helped form our society. This is not something that bothered me when I read the book, though. But if you expect to gain deep lessons about how you can use drugs and be a jerk and at the same time build a better society, then you might end up disappointed.
Much of the charm of this book, and it is a very charming book, comes from the willingness of Robert Evans to expose himself, or his friends and acquaintances, to ancient drug recipes and "cures" for various ailments. For instance, he tries to make beer by following the oldest known beer recipe (not a hit), he tries communal pot smoking (a moderate hit), and he tries to drink his own waste products to help self-inflicted, cheese induced, constipation (could be judged either way depending on your criteria). Evans keeps reassuring the reader that he did not do certain things and did not try certain drugs because "that would have been a felony" - an argument that makes me a little suspicious. Thankfully, the author always seems to have some "friends" who can provide him with whatever knowledge gaps the law prevents him from exploring in himself.
This book is entertaining to be sure. It will also give you a whole new arsenal of trivia to show off at your next party. The information seems relatively well researched. Evans makes references to scientific studies, even if he may be cherry picking a bit. Sometimes Evans prefers a theory because it is just more awesome which, as long as you are honest about it, is fine with me.
Taken together, I would say that this book was well worth the time it took to read it. I may not have learned a ton, but I did learn some new things. Above all, this book was funny, and I think, an assessment I think >90% of all readers will agree with. Recommended
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21 people found this helpful
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- Bethany
- 07-07-19
Where is Robert Evans???
I downloaded this book after finding podcasts hosted by Robert Evan's. This audiobook would have been a million times better narrated by the author. The sarcasm and dry wit that the author intones does not come across when read aloud by this narrator. Still enjoyed the book and have recommended to others.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Rocky Brashear
- 05-21-19
let down by the narrator
The narrator sounds like a dare officer spying a skit about doing drugs. Terrible disservice to the content of the book. Evans himself would be a far superior narrator.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Carl
- 08-31-16
Wonderful Intellectual Surprise
Great book and narrator. Took chance on book and loved it. I love non fiction books that tell about how history was vs how we like to sugarcoat it. Factual, honest, and surprisingly funny. Written in a bit of a Gonzo style that makes it fun and easy to listen to without glorifying the habits we guiltily love.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Joel
- 06-03-21
Robert is great. Listen to his podcasts too!
Controversial, laced with profanity, and skirting legality: everything I love about Robert Evans and his work packed into a single book! Check out his podcasts first if you aren't sure if you'll like this book. Also, check out his podcasts if you DO like this book and want more!
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3 people found this helpful
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- DGE 2020
- 08-28-16
Get an Audible High With a Hit of this Book
If Audible was a drug (and sometimes it is an addition, right?) then this hilarious book is like a quick sure fire buzz that will get you feeling happy.
Note: I've never taken a drug in my life, so perhaps I am not the best source for that advice. :)
What makes this book fun is the writing style. The author has an ingenious and original style for writing some fairly serious and in depth prose and then busts out a joke or phrase that is outrageous. I don't remember the last time I laughed outloud from listening to an Audible book, but I have to admit I was listening to this book while sitting on a Southwest airlines flight, sandwiched in the middle seat and I was trying to hold in my laughter and just shaking silently. I am sure the other two people thought I was crazy. I was having the best middle seat experience of any flight I have ever been on.
As for content, I liked how the author tried to not just look at drugs and alcohol, but how he examined the entire world of things that alter moods. There are even chapters on the physiological effects of music and coffee. I appreciated the science and was grateful that while I felt the science was credible, it was not so in depth that it made the book get dry.
Best of all, this book did made me re-examine my attitudes toward all things vice. I wouldn't say it changed me - I still have not tried any drugs and do not plan to, but I have a slightly different and more happy attitude that might be considered a bit more relaxed.
The reader is very clear. Audible picked the best person possible to read this book, Tristan Morris. Because he can read something dead pan, it makes the jokes funnier. If it had been a reader that really wanted to accentuate the jokes, it would have ruined them.
All in all, I found this book to be informative, entertaining and a simple pleasure to experience. Don't be afriad my fellow listeners, if this is the only drug you ever try, you will safely get a great buzz for hours.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amanda Lape-Freeberg
- 08-14-16
Extraordinarily engaging
Having been a fan of Robert Evans work at cracked, I was excited to see that this book had come out on audible just in time for me to take a long car trip. I can conclusively report that his trademark mixture of laugh out loud funny and surprisingly informative and well researched nonfiction makes an extremely effective transition to longer form work, reminiscent of a more crass and adventerous Bill Bryson. The narrator also does a wonderful job of bringing the book to life (although it was occasionally difficult to tell from the narrator's tone of voice exactly when a quotation from a cited source ended and Evan's text resumed.) All in all, I would highly recommend it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Sean
- 09-12-16
Very weak
Great idea but very poor execution. No real historical research, just garbled notes about personal experiences. A pity this was not approached with the skill of a Bill Bryson
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2 people found this helpful
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- Scott Ziegler
- 08-25-16
Short on History - More on How to Get High
What disappointed you about A Brief History of Vice?
Only mildly amusing this book was short on the history of Vice and long on "how to get high" advice. Including recipes, or barring historical data on what was actually in a particular concoction, Evans made up recipe on hallucinogenic tea or whatever.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Chris Williams
- 12-16-16
It promised the world and gave me an atlas
Any additional comments?
Other reviews had this as an LOL romp in vice. Not sure where the LOL bits were. The review is more than it should be, but i'm off my face as I write this and am feeling generous
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1 person found this helpful