Alcohol and Moral Regulation: Public Attitudes, Spirited Measures and Victorian Hangovers

Attitudes toward alcohol—and the extent and rate of its consumption—have undergone considerable changes over the centuries. In the face of contemporary concern with increased drinking, Alcohol and Moral Regulation offers a refreshing historical perspective, explaining that anxieties about alcohol are perhaps best understood as a “hangover” from the Victorian period. Drawing on extensive historical research, the volume puts contemporary attitudes in context, and thus gives scholars and policy makers alike a more nuanced way to approach analyses of, and approaches to, contemporary drinking.