A Brief History of Vice, Robert Evans
A Brief History of Vice, Robert Evans
2 Rating(s)
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A Brief History of Vice
How Bad Behavior Built Civilization

Author: Robert Evans

Narrator: Tristan Morris

Unabridged: 7 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 08/09/2016


Synopsis

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. 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.

“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

About The Author

Robert Evans is an editorial manager at Cracked.com. His articles rack up an average of sixty-four million views a year. He was a contributor to the bestselling You Might Be a Zombie and The De-Textbook.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anders on August 20, 2016

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 high like people in ancient times? If that is what you seek, then this is the book for you. In contrast to the impre......more

Goodreads review by Voja on December 07, 2020

Kao što i sam naslov sugeriše, radi se o kratkoj istoriji fenomena koji je, kako sam autor navodi, stariji od samog čoveka, ljudske vrste. Naime, hipoteza o "pijanom majmunu" nudi teoriju da je "redovno piće donosilo znatne blagodati našim krznatim precima". Nadalje, u ostalim poglavljima, Evans piš......more

Goodreads review by Melissa on March 09, 2017

An ok but mostly forgettable book. It's really just meant to be fun, and that's fine. Human vices contributed some things to society, but it's really an exaggeration to say vice "built civilization." It's just wishful thinking, really. The title is like the book version of clickbait. It worked, it d......more

Goodreads review by Jim on January 01, 2020

The book isn't very well titled since it doesn't stick to or make that point, but it is an interesting look at vice through history. Evans is (was?) a writer for Cracked.com, but there's not as much sarcastic humor as I would have expected. He was quite staid for the most part with enough humor to k......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on August 11, 2022

It was fun to "read" this as an audiobook, but a tad too irreverant for my tastes. It really made me want to smoke.......more


Quotes

“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's 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