Further reading
The original Absinthe Kits site kept a links page, and a good deal of it pointed at absinthe references that have long since gone offline. This is a rebuilt version: current, checked, and limited to sources that are actually authoritative on the questions this site covers.
The evidence on absinthism and thujone
If you read one thing on the subject, read “Absinthism: a fictitious 19th century syndrome with present impact”, published in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy in 2006 and freely available through PubMed Central. It goes back through the original nineteenth-century clinical literature and shows how the syndrome was assembled.
For the compound itself, the PubChem record for alpha-thujone collects the structure, properties, toxicology and literature in one place.
Regulation
The United States food additive rule that governs wormwood in food and drink is 21 CFR 172.510, which lists Artemisia species as permitted natural flavourings on the condition that the finished product is thujone free as defined there. Labelling, formula approval and import rules for spirits sit with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Botany
For the plant, the reference article on Artemisia absinthium is well sourced and covers description, distribution, chemistry and historical use; the companion article on thujone is a reasonable starting point before the primary literature.
The paintings
Van Gogh's Café Table with Absinthe is catalogued by the Van Gogh Museum with provenance and notes. Degas's L'Absinthe, in the Musée d'Orsay, has an unusually well-documented reception history — the London reaction of 1893 is a case study in how the drink's reputation was made.
The period literature
A great deal of the writing that put absinthe into the canon is out of copyright. Project Gutenberg carries a searchable body of it, including the decadent poets and the period journalism in which the green hour appears as ordinary daily life rather than as scandal.
General history
The general article on absinthe is now well referenced and is a serviceable index into the primary sources, the ban legislation and the modern revival.
What is not here
The original page carried a number of banners and reciprocal links to friends of the business, retailers, and sites unrelated to absinthe. Those are not restored: several are long dead, and none of them are references. This site does not link to retailers or recommend suppliers.
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