I've owned this book since it's original publication. It appears a bit fashionable to criticize some aspects of this book but it predates the entire renewed interest in this drink by a good 20 years. Yes, there were small aspects that irked me, like menitioning ancient sources by author but not by text, or text and not by author, but this is primarily a work about the 19th century, with a few decades of the 18th and 20th acting as bookends.
The one thing that should be read with skepticism, now, is what is essentially an appendix (as I recall) "proving" a similarity between thujone and THC. The study the argument is based on, which dates from the 1970s, has been dismissed by more recent study.
This in no way detracts from what is a delightful book. Lavish and highly entertaining. Get more detail about Absinthe: History in a Bottle.
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