Synopses & Reviews
In 1720, a new drink emerged as the overwhelming drug of choice among London's working poor; it was both affordable and many times stronger than traditional spirits. The beverage was gin, and the craze it initiated would become the 18th-century's equivalent of our crack cocaine epidemic. Craze is the first popular illustrated history to focus exclusively on the gin craze. Warner looks at the impact of "mother gin" from personal, political, and sexual perspectives. She draws on hundreds of primary sources, from Defoe to Dr. Johnson, guiding us through squalid back rooms, streets thronged with hawkers, raging mobs, and the halls of Parliament. The result is a timely, irreverent, utterly engrossing look at a city and a drug — and a drug scare — that helped shape our contemporary views of pleasure, consumption, and public morality.
Review
"[An] intriguing slice of social history....In the book's final chapter, Warner paints an interesting parallel between the 'gin craze' and the recent war on drugs. This informative and accessible popular history should appeal to those with a taste for 18th-century English history as well to those interested in histories of mind-altering substances..." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A tart, acute inquiry into the mania for gin....[Warner] gives her savvy investigation a second, deeper dimension as a parable about drugs....Social history at its gimlet-eyed best." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"[An] affecting and at times amusing history of an addiction epidemic from an earlier age." Forbes
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"[I]nsightful....Warner draws parallels between the gin craze and our current drug problems. An interesting and educational read..." Library Journal
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"This well illustrated, well referenced book will reward readers and, importantly, teach politicians a valuable how-not-to lesson." ForeWord Magazine
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"Provocative....Warner has done impressive research....[A] crisp, detailed review of the history of the place and period." The Baltimore Sun
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"Entertainingly told....Warner writes with great flair....The book is organized into three acts, like an 18th-century play, complete with a list of characters and appropriate subtitles ('In Which Virtue Triumphs Over Prudence'). Warner is especially good at bringing to light the role of women in the gin craze..." Austin American-Statesman
Review
"An erudite historical statement underpinned by immense mining of primary sources, and at the same time a gripping story told with pace and wit. Read about the gin epidemic of years ago and better understand the drug outbreaks of the modern world....This book must surely become, in its own right, a craze." Griffith Edwards, author of Alcohol: The World's Favorite Drug
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-262) and index.
Synopsis
This intimate and irreverent history of the "gin craze" in 1720 London--a time in which a new drink emerged as the overwhelming drug of choice among the working poor--is the first popular history to focus exclusively on the this craze. Warner looks at the impact of "mother gin" from personal, political, and sexual perspectives. Illustrations.
About the Author
Jessica Warner was born and raised in Washington, DC. A graduate of Princeton and Yale, she is a professor of history at the University of Toronto and a research scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, where she has written extensively on the history of alcohol and other drugs.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements IX
Dramatis Personae XIII
Introduction I
Act I In Which A New and Bewitching Liquor Is Introduced to an Unwary Nation
1. Strong Waters 21
2. A Curious Machine Makes a Brief Appearance 43
3. The Ladies Succumb 65
Act II In Which Virtue Triumphs Over Prudence
4. A Lesson in Political Arithmetic 85
5. A Whig and a Prig 105
6. Enter the Informers 135
7. Exit the Informers 161
Act III In Which Time Passes and Wisdom Is Gained
8. Mother Gin Grows Old 181
9. The Author Also Grows Old, and, Reluctant to Conclude the Narrative, Meditates upon Recent Events 209
Chronology 221
Notes 225
Index 263