Alcohol can be an item of diet, a medicine, sometimes an element in religious ritual. It is a valued object for the connoisseur, a traded commodity and a symbol of national pride (wine for instance in France, whisky in Scotland). The range of social and medical problems associated with alcohol and the history of related treatment methods (including the temperance movement, prohibition, AA and a range of contemporary approaches) are considered here....

A spirited look at the history of alcohol, from the dawn of civilization to the modern day. Alcohol is a fundamental part of Western culture. We have been drinking as long as we have been human, and for better or worse, alcohol has shaped our civilization. Drink investigates the history of this Jekyll and Hyde of fluids, tracing mankind's love/hate relationship with alcohol from ancient Egypt to the present day. Drink further documents the contribution...

"Booze had dominated Jill Stark's social life ever since she had her first sip of beer, at 13. She thought nothing could curb her love of big nights. And then came the hangover that changed everything. In the shadow of her 35th year, Jill made a decision: she would give up alcohol. But what would it mean to stop drinking in a world awash with booze? This lively memoir charts Jill's tumultuous year on the wagon, as she copes with the stress of the...

In 2009 President Barack Obama hosted a friendly "beer summit" on the White House lawn in an attempt to diffuse a racially charged incident between a Caucasian policeman and an African American professor. In the United States, beer and other alcoholic beverage companies are often the main advertisers during television sporting event coverage. A study has found that 44 percent of American college students participate in binge drinking, while NHTSA...