A review by slferg
Craze: Gin and Debauchery in An Age of Reason by Jessica Warner

3.0

An interesting look at the effort to stop sales of gin in London in the 1700s. There were several different gin acts, but only one managed to reduce the sales - when they reduced the license to sell gin so anyone could afford it, gin lost some of its popularity as a government protest. Then, there came hard financial times where crop failures and draught caused the crops to be used for other than distilling and besides nobody could afford gin. This finally reduced the drinking of gin although it never stopped it completely. The author takes a scornful look at reformers who wanted to outlaw gin for the "good of the workers" - undercutting the work supply, people would rather drink than work, women were drinking gin and neglecting children, etc.
I got a little turned off on it by the use of "liberal", "right-wing", "proletariat", and so on strung through the history. I am almost sure the people of the 1700s did not think in those terms.
Then, she links the drinking of gin to the taking of drugs today. It is a good analogy, perhaps not perfect, but good. It would have been interesting to see the effort to stop gin compared to the effort of Prohibition in the early 1900s. In fact, I thought at first that was where the book was headed. Warner claims the drinking of gin and drugs cannot be stopped by making the sale or use illegal. That its use is caused by a complicated and underlying series or mix of things. Which makes sense.....
The book could perhaps have been put together a little better without a lot of repetition involved, but it was a fairly well researched book.