James Nicholls is a Research Manager at Alcohol Research UK

This is an exciting account of how public, professional and political discourses on alcohol reveal underlying tensions around fundamental questions of individual freedom, the control of free markets, the relationship between the state and industry, and the cultural and political attitudes which have helped to shape alcohol policy across the centuries. The book successfully traces common themes through different historical periods to the present time as well as identifying key changes in the politics of alcohol'.Dr Betsy Thom, Head of Social Policy Research Centre; Reader in Drug and Alcohol Studies at Middlesex University and Co-ordinating editor of the journal *Drugs: education, prevention and policy*This introductory conceptualisation of his subject is constantly referred back to as the reader progresses through the chronological chapters and serves to give shape and meaning to a considerable amount of information.... Nicholls has succeeded in producing an accessible introduction to the drink question in all its complexity.All in all, it can be said that the book delivers what the title promises - a comprehensive compilation of information about the politicization of the issue of alcohol treated subjects in England.

• Introduction1. A monstrous plant: acohol and the Reformation2. Healths, toasts and pledges: political drinking in the seventeenth century3. A new kind of drunkenness: the gin craze4. The politics of sobriety: coffee and politics in Georgian England5. A fascinating poison: early medical writing on drink 6. Ungovernable passions: intoxication and Romanticism7. Odious monopolies: power, control and the 1830 Beer Act8. The last tyrant: the rise of temperance9. A monstrous theory: the politics of prohibition 10. The state and the trade: the drink question at the turn of the century10. Central control: war and nationalisation 11. The study of inebriety: medicine and the law12. The pub and the people: drinking places and popular culture13. Prevention and health: alcohol and public health14. Beer orders: the changing landscape in the 1990s15. Drinking responsibly: media, government and binge drinkingConclusion: the drink question todayIndex

James Nicholls is a Research Manager at Alcohol Research UK

This is an exciting account of how public, professional and political discourses on alcohol reveal underlying tensions around fundamental questions of individual freedom, the control of free markets, the relationship between the state and industry, and the cultural and political attitudes which have helped to shape alcohol policy across the centuries. The book successfully traces common themes through different historical periods to the present time as well as identifying key changes in the politics of alcohol'.Dr Betsy Thom, Head of Social Policy Research Centre; Reader in Drug and Alcohol Studies at Middlesex University and Co-ordinating editor of the journal *Drugs: education, prevention and policy*This introductory conceptualisation of his subject is constantly referred back to as the reader progresses through the chronological chapters and serves to give shape and meaning to a considerable amount of information.... Nicholls has succeeded in producing an accessible introduction to the drink question in all its complexity.All in all, it can be said that the book delivers what the title promises - a comprehensive compilation of information about the politicization of the issue of alcohol treated subjects in England.

• Introduction1. A monstrous plant: acohol and the Reformation2. Healths, toasts and pledges: political drinking in the seventeenth century3. A new kind of drunkenness: the gin craze4. The politics of sobriety: coffee and politics in Georgian England5. A fascinating poison: early medical writing on drink 6. Ungovernable passions: intoxication and Romanticism7. Odious monopolies: power, control and the 1830 Beer Act8. The last tyrant: the rise of temperance9. A monstrous theory: the politics of prohibition 10. The state and the trade: the drink question at the turn of the century10. Central control: war and nationalisation 11. The study of inebriety: medicine and the law12. The pub and the people: drinking places and popular culture13. Prevention and health: alcohol and public health14. Beer orders: the changing landscape in the 1990s15. Drinking responsibly: media, government and binge drinkingConclusion: the drink question todayIndex

James Nicholls is a Research Manager at Alcohol Research UK

This is an exciting account of how public, professional and political discourses on alcohol reveal underlying tensions around fundamental questions of individual freedom, the control of free markets, the relationship between the state and industry, and the cultural and political attitudes which have helped to shape alcohol policy across the centuries. The book successfully traces common themes through different historical periods to the present time as well as identifying key changes in the politics of alcohol'.Dr Betsy Thom, Head of Social Policy Research Centre; Reader in Drug and Alcohol Studies at Middlesex University and Co-ordinating editor of the journal *Drugs: education, prevention and policy*This introductory conceptualisation of his subject is constantly referred back to as the reader progresses through the chronological chapters and serves to give shape and meaning to a considerable amount of information.... Nicholls has succeeded in producing an accessible introduction to the drink question in all its complexity.All in all, it can be said that the book delivers what the title promises - a comprehensive compilation of information about the politicization of the issue of alcohol treated subjects in England.

• Introduction1. A monstrous plant: acohol and the Reformation2. Healths, toasts and pledges: political drinking in the seventeenth century3. A new kind of drunkenness: the gin craze4. The politics of sobriety: coffee and politics in Georgian England5. A fascinating poison: early medical writing on drink 6. Ungovernable passions: intoxication and Romanticism7. Odious monopolies: power, control and the 1830 Beer Act8. The last tyrant: the rise of temperance9. A monstrous theory: the politics of prohibition 10. The state and the trade: the drink question at the turn of the century10. Central control: war and nationalisation 11. The study of inebriety: medicine and the law12. The pub and the people: drinking places and popular culture13. Prevention and health: alcohol and public health14. Beer orders: the changing landscape in the 1990s15. Drinking responsibly: media, government and binge drinkingConclusion: the drink question todayIndex