Woodslane | Book - 9780801881190

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Alcoholism in America:

From Reconstruction to Prohibition

ISBN-13: 9780801881190
Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
By Sarah W. Tracy
Price: AUD $130.00
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 14/07/2005
Format: Hardback 384 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: History of medicine [MBX]

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Despite the lack of medical consensus regarding alcoholism as a disease, many people readily accept the concept of addiction as a clinical as well as a social disorder. An alcoholic is a victim of social circumstance and genetic destiny. Although one might imagine that this dual approach is a reflection of today's enlightened and sympathetic society, historian Sarah Tracy discovers that efforts to medicalize alcoholism are anything but new.Alcoholism in America tells the story of physicians, politicians, court officials, and families struggling to address the danger of excessive alcohol consumption at the turn of the century. Beginning with the formation of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates in 1870 and concluding with the enactment of Prohibition in 1920, this study examines the effect of the disease concept on individual drinkers and their families and friends, as well as the ongoing battle between policymakers and the professional medical community for jurisdiction over alcohol problems. Tracy captures the complexity of the political, professional, and social negotiations that have characterized the alcoholism field both yesterday and today.Tracy weaves American medical history, social history, and the sociology of knowledge into a narrative that probes the connections among reform movements, social welfare policy, the specialization of medicine, and the social construction of disease. Her insights will engage all those interested in America's historic and current battles with addiction.

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Disease Concept(s) of Inebriety2. Cultural Framing of Inebriety3. Institutional Solutions for Inebriety4. Public Inebriate Hospitals and Farm Colonies5. The ""Foxborough Experiment""6. Building a Boozatorium7. On the Vice and Disease of InebrietyConclusionNotesIndex

""This is an excellent book... full of interesting case studies, anecdotes and historical insights. It is well worth reading by all of those who have an interest in the way in which we currently construe alcohol policy, and is a brimful of reminders that we are regularly in danger of reinventing the heel unless we carefully study the history of this ubiquitous and puzzling problem.""

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Alcoholism in America:

From Reconstruction to Prohibition