Intoxication and drunkenness

This book is a journey through intoxication and drunkenness in the France of the Ancien Régime: all those whom Diderot humorously calls the "inspired by the bottle" are present. It is also an innovation: it is the first book to offer a rigorous and systematic historical analysis of this cultural phenomenon. It is a work of broad cultural history. It has a total history vocation since political, religious, judicial, economic, social, and cultural perspectives are analyzed both at the kingdom level and at the local level. This historical analysis of intoxication and drunkenness highlights that the religious, political, moral, economic, and medical oppositions that develop in France from the 16th to the 18th century do not effectively combat intoxication in the country. A "culture of inebriation" strongly permeates the entire social body from the elites to the common people. The oppositions prove to be pragmatic and marked by compromise. Direct religious and political opposition is illusory, and the emergence of a moral, economic, and medical opposition does not solve the problem any further. A reflection by Jean-Jacques Rousseau summarizes well the position adopted towards intoxication: "let us not seek the chimera of perfection but rather the best possible."