A good place to start if you are interested in jumping on the absinthe bandwagon (besides here at In Absinthia of course), is to check out the FAQ at Oxygénée's wonderful site, The Virtual Absinthe Museum. The FAQ lists all kinds of interesting facts, figures and history behind absinthe. This history is often mistold and mischaracterized and hasn't yet, I don't think, been done justice in the printed page. But Oxygénée does an excellent job of "just the facts, ma'am", as well as keeping the hyperbole (both pro and con) down to a minimum. In particular, I like this introduction to the entry on the history of absinthe:

Banned for almost a century until its recent revival, absinthe is something of a "living fossil", a coelacanth amongst drinks, able to magically transport us back to the glittering world of Paris and the Belle Epoque, a world of bohemian musicians and writers, of the Moulin Rouge and the cafes of Montmartre, a world of starving struggling artists and glittering courtesans.