Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason
Gin took London by storm in the first half of the 18th century.  It "was the original urban drug," says Warner in this intriguing  slice of social history. "Cheap, potent, and readily available,"  it aided London's poor in escaping the wretchedness of their  lives and was considered a public menace by Daniel Defoe and  Samuel Johnson. (Hogarth's famous print Gin Lane imagined a  nightmarish world destroyed by a seemingly demonic drink.)  Warner, a University of Toronto professor, gives us the whole  story of gin: where it came from (Holland), who drank it (a  large percentage were women), how it was perceived among elites  (as a threat to the nation), and how legislative efforts to curb  consumption fared (badly). Due to its popularity among the  English lower classes, gin became synonymous with squalor. And  as back-alley gin-shops doubled as meeting places for thieves,  gin also became associated with debauchery and criminality.  Warner brings us inside these rundown, unlicensed gin shops to  show us how and where gin was consumed. and into Parliament,  which in 1736 passed the "most notorious" of a series of Gin  Acts, which ended in failure. Gin consumption increased;  moreover, the laws created a working-class atmosphere of "open  contempt for the law and its agents." 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, such as Dominic  Streatfeild's recent Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, Richard  Davenport-Hines's The Pursuit of Oblivion and the forthcoming  Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication by Stuart Walton  (Forecasts, July 29). Illus. (Oct. 21)Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.