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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

6. ‘These Are the Cases Who Call Themselves “Moderate Drinkers,” Because They Are Never Seen Embracing a Lamp-Post’: The Problem of Moderate Drinking in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Britain

Author : James Kneale

Published in: Just Enough

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

Kneale describes the problem of defining and measuring moderate drinking in Britain between 1800 and 1939, drawing on material from arguments made within temperance, medical and (more unusually) life assurance circles. Debating abstinence, moderation and excessive drinking, these authorities engaged with writers and scientists in North America and Europe to establish just how much drink was enough. In doing so, they were also struggling to determine just who should be able to make these decisions: doctors, statisticians or drinkers themselves. Opinions about moderate drinking are still divided in Britain, along similar lines to those taken before 1939, and Kneale’s history helps to historicise contemporary arguments about how much drink is enough and how much is too much.

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Title: ‘These Are the Cases Who Call Themselves “Moderate Drinkers,” Because They Are Never Seen Embracing a Lamp-Post’: The Problem of Moderate Drinking in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Britain
Author: James Kneale
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Book: Just Enough
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56209-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-56210-4

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56210-4_6