Synopses & Reviews
This broad-ranging and innovative investigation explores the ways in which both authorities and individual consumers have defined and managed the pleasures and dangers of alcoholic beverages. It explores the question of free will versus determinism and how it has been challenged by ideas about addiction, morality and psychology during the past 150 years. This book is based on years of original research and draws on sources from the United States, UK, Canada and elsewhere and will appeal to readers in legal studies, addiction studies, criminology, sociology and psychology.
Review
"[This book] is theoretically ambitious and yet it achieves these ambitions and then some. It sets a standard for historical sociology that is frequently not met. Rich empirical evidence and wonderful illustrations tether complex arguments. The book represents a significant contribution to the growing literature and research on freedom and control. In short, Valverde achieves her worthy ambition to understand just what we, in our specific historical moment, are doing." Economy and Society"Mariana's Valverde's book, Diseases of the WIll, makes a significant contribution that will provide a foundation for all future discussions about addiction and the nature and limits of human freedom and responsibility." William L. White, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Synopsis
A history of the pleasures and dangers of alcoholic beverages, exploring ideas of free will versus determinism.
Synopsis
This is a sociological investigation of the history and uses of alcoholic beverages. It explores the notion of free will versus determinism and includes original research from the US, UK, Canada and Australia. It will appeal to readers in legal studies, criminology, sociology, psychology, social theory and the history of medicine.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Disease or habit? Alcoholism and the exercise of freedom; 2. Repairing diseased wills: Victorian science and pastoral medicine before 'alcoholism'; 3. The fragmentation of inebriety; 4. 'Enlightened hedonism': the emergence of alcohol science in the US; 5. The power of powerlessness: Alcoholics Anonymous techniques for governing the self; 6. The liquor of government and the government of liquor; 7. Reducing risks, replacing fluids; 8. Judicial diagnostics: 'Intoxicated Automatism' and the resurrection of the will.