Looks at the nineteenth-century convergence of a new kind of excessive, habitual drinking, and a new way of thinking about the self, which we came to label ‘existential’.

Looks at the nineteenth-century convergence of a new kind of excessive, habitual drinking, and a new way of thinking about the self, which we came to label 'existential'.

A memoir of friendship and literature chronicling a search for meaning and comfort in great books, and a beautiful path out of grief. Anne Gisleson had lost her twin sisters, had been forced to flee her home during Hurricane Katrina, and had witnessed cancer take her beloved father. Before she met her husband, Brad, he had suffered his own trauma, losing his partner and the mother of his son to cancer in her young thirties. "How do we keep moving forward," Anne asks, "amid all this loss and threat?" The answer: "We do it together." Anne and Brad, in the midst of forging their happiness, found that their friends had been suffering their own losses and crises as well: loved ones gone, rocky marriages, tricky child-rearing, jobs lost or gained, financial insecurities or unexpected windfalls. Together these resilient New Orleanians formed what they called the Existential Crisis Reading Group, which they jokingly dubbed "The Futilitarians." From Epicurus to Tolstoy, from Cheever to Amis to Lispector, each month they read and talked about identity, parenting, love, mortality, and life in post-Katrina New Orleans, In the year after her father's death, these living-room gatherings provided a sustenance Anne craved, fortifying her and helping her blaze a trail out of her well-worn grief. More than that, this fellowship allowed her finally to commune with her sisters on the page, and to tell the story of her family that had remained long untold. Written with wisdom, soul, and a playful sense of humor, The Futilitarians is a guide to living curiously and fully, and a testament to the way that even from the toughest soil of sorrow, beauty and wonder can bloom.

The burgeoning field of drinking studies, often ranging across and between disciplinary boundaries, explores the place of alcohol in human societies from a very diverse range of perspectives. Whilst some scholars have examined the cultural meanings and social practices associated with alcohol consumption, and its relationship to various forms of identity and community formation, others have focused on attempts to regulate or tax it, its role as a trade commodity, or its medical and psychological effects on consumers. The sheer diversity of issues upon which the study of alcohol and drinking can shed light is undoubtedly part of the strength of the field of drinking studies. At the same time, however, it can make it difficult for these different strands to consistently and fully engage with one another. This book offers an innovative methodology that will help to facilitate fruitful interactions between scholars approaching the study of alcohol from different perspectives: the “biographies of drink” approach. Drawing inspiration from, but also going beyond, work on the “social lives of things,” this collection of essays showcases an approach in which each author constructs a “biography” of a particular drink, drinking place, or idea associated with drink, in a tightly-focused historical context. The “biographies” included range from the drinking vessels of Roman Britain to a whisky advertising campaign in 1950s America, and deal with diverse themes, from the associations between alcohol and national identity to the relationship between drinking and Existentialism. The book brings together scholarly approaches from classics, design theory, literary studies and history within the “biographies” framework. This allows for the emergence of important areas of comparison and contrast, as well as several overarching themes, such as the close associations between different drinking patterns and notions of tradition and modernity that occur in a wide range of cultural and historical contexts. Not only, then, does this book provide fascinating case studies of interest to scholars working in particular fields or particular contexts, but it also showcases a productive new methodology which offers insights of relevance to anyone interested in the role of alcohol in any society.

The Existentialist's Guide to Death, the Universe and Nothingness is an entertaining philosophical guide to life, love, hate, freedom, sex, anxiety, God and death; a guide to everything and nothing. Gary Cox, bestselling author of How to Be an Existentialist and How to Be a Philosopher, takes us on an exciting journey through the central themes of existentialism, a philosophy of the human condition. The Existentialist's Guide fascinates, informs, provokes and inspires as it explores existentialism's uncompromising view of human reality. It leaves the reader with no illusions about how hard it is to live honestly and achieve authenticity. It has, however, a redeeming humour that sets the wisdom of the great existentialist philosophers alongside the wit of great musicians and comedians. A realistic self-help book for anyone interested in personal empowerment, The Existentialist's Guide offers a wealth of profound philosophical insight into life, the universe and everything.