A monstrous plant : alcohol and the Reformation -- Healths, toasts and pledges : political drinking in the seventeenth century -- A new kind of drunkeness : the gin craze -- The politics of sobriety : coffee and society in Georgian England -- A fascinating poison : early medical writing on drink -- Ungovernable passions : intoxication and Romanticism -- Odious monopolies : power, control and the 1830 Beer Act -- The last tyrant : the rise of temperance-- A monstrous theory : the politics of prohibition -- The State and the trade : the drink question at the turn of the century -- Central control : war and nationalism -- The study of inebriety : medicine and the law -- The pub and the people : drinking places and popular culture -- Prevention and health : alcohol and public health-- Beer orders : the changing landscape in the 1990s -- Drinking responsibly : media, government and binge drinking -- Conclusion : the drink question today
Summary
Questions about drink, including how it is used and how it should be regulated, have been the source of sustained and heated dispute in recent years. The author puts these concerns in historical context by providing a detailed and extensive survey of public debates on alcohol from the mid-16th century to the present day
