The Atlantic: The Meaning of Dry January
“Slingerland, the author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, is, for the first time, participating in Dry January, the annual tradition where drinkers go sober for the first month of the year. (Slingerland is doing just half the month.) In doing so, he’ll join a growing number of Americans (according to one poll, as much as one-fifth of the population) who participate in the annual campaign, which originated in the United Kingdom a decade ago.”
Caroline Mimbs Nyce, “The Meaning of Dry January,” The Atlantic, January 11, 2023
Zocalo: Announcing the Zócalo 2022 Book Prize Shortlist
“What is racism costing all of us? How are communities across America battling the opioid crisis? Who are the people drilling in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota? And just how essential was drunkenness to the creation of civilization as we know it?
These are the questions that animate the four books shortlisted for the 2022 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize.”
“Announcing the Zócalo 2022 Book Prize Shortlist,” Zócalo, December, 9 2021
The spectator: Our need to get drunk in company may be innate
“Edward Slingerland’s Drunk is self-consciously ‘haunted’ by that Lancet study — ‘the terrible document that concluded definitively that the only safe level of alcohol consumption was zero’. Slingerland aims to tell a vindicatory story about intoxication, its adaptive value for societies and individuals, and its continued indispensability to contemporary life.”
John Maier, “Our Need to Get Drunk In Company May Be Innate,” The Spectator, July 24, 2021
New york Post: Our bossy society is completely losing sight of the value of risky behavior
“When told that Gen. Ulysses Grant drank too much, President Abraham Lincoln is said to have inquired as to Grant’s choice of booze, so he could send some to his other generals. The anecdote captures the central argument of “Drunk,” Edward Slingerland’s new book on alcohol, policy and culture — and it offers lessons for all sorts of other regulatory efforts.”
Glenn H. Reynolds, “Our bossy society is completely losing sight of the value of risky behavior,” New York Post, July 1, 2021
New York Times: A rowdy banquet of a book
“Slingerland takes up the cause with all the chivalry of a knight-errant, and his infectious passion makes this book a romp as well as a refreshingly erudite rejoinder to the prevailing wisdom.”
Zoë Lescaze, “A History of Getting Hammered, and Why Some of Us Should Keep Doing It,” New York Times, June 19, 2021.
New scientist: Could alcohol-induced creativity be key to civilisation?
“A childlike state of mind in an adult is key to cultural innovation, argues [Slingerland]. Intoxicants provide an efficient route to that state by temporarily taking the prefrontal cortex offline, he says.”
Vijaysree Venkatraman, “Drunk review: Could alcohol-induced creativity be key to civilisation?,” New Scientist, June 2, 2021
Wall Street Journal: a thoughtful and spirited defense of intoxication
“You might suspect that Mr. Slingerland, an expert in Chinese philosophy with eclectic academic interests, is seeing his subject through beer goggles. But his approach is stone-cold sober, “defending the power of Dionysus . . . in a way that bows to Apollo,” as he puts it.”
Julian Baggini, “‘Drunk’ Review: Two Cheers for Happy Hour,” Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2021.
Discover Magazine: illuminating and Intoxicating
“Within the first few lines, Drunk will have you snorting beer out of your nose”
“More pages to turn,” Discover June 2021
Library Journal: An illuminating yet conversational study
“Slingerland’s informal, conversational style weaves modern scientific studies with ancient mythology.”
Meyer, Jeffrey, Review of Drunk, Library Journal (starred review).
Reader’s Digest: Creating Space for Spontaneity
“Learn how to stop overscheduling your life, embrace surprise and have some fun.”
Rumack, Leah. “How Little Acts of Spontaneity Can Make Your Day,” Reader’s Digest Canada, April 29, 2021.