Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Bibliographic Data

ID19906418
AuthorsThomas Edward Brennan
Year1988
Pages350
Publication date1988-12-31
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenuePublic Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1515/9781400859184
OpenAlexW4298062577
Open LibraryOL29235269M
ISBN9781400859184
LanguageEN
Citations received25

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 sociability. Using the records of the Parisian police, he lets the common people describe their own behavior and beliefs. Their testimony places the tavern at the center of working men's social existence. Central to the study is the clash of elite and popular culture as it was articulated in the different attitudes to taverns. The elites saw in taverns the indiscipline and exuberance that they condemned in popular culture. Popular testimony presented public drinking in very different terms. The elaborate rituals surrounding public drinking, its prevalence in popular sociability and recreation, all point to the importance of drink as a medium of social exchange rather than a drugged escape from misery, and to the tavern as a focal point for men's communities. Professor Brennan has elucidated the logic of both elite and popular systems of meaning and found new dignity and coherence in the culture and values of the populace. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905

Aesthetics · Art · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · Public culture · Sociology · Decadence, Literature, and Society · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Law · Literature and Culture Studies · 18th century · Alcohol Drinking · Bars (Drinking establishments) · Drinking customs · Drinking of alcoholic beverages · France · Hotels · Paris · Social conditions · Social life and customs · Taverns (Inns) · Working class

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