Demons: Our Changing Attitudes to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs

Historian of public health Berridge untangles complex perceptions of drugs, drink, and tobacco—products ubiquitous in the 1800s that are now mass-produced and regulated. Economics and technology played a major role in shaping their futures, she argues. For alcohol and cigarettes, technological changes would mean “a mass product for a mass market.” For drugs, “the product was for a more restricted and medicalized market.” Focusing primarily on the U.K., Berridge follows how drugs were “reconceptualized” after WWII, analyzing why some are legal now and others not. The fascinating evolution is also tracked through first-hand accounts that include a 19th-century pharmacist’s ordering techniques for snuff; the startling conclusion that opium dens were far less objectionable than public drunkenness; the scientific call for a public health response to drug users spreading the virus causing AIDS; and the sensationalist headlines chronicling the uptick in binge drinking by teenagers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. For the future, Berridge thoughtfully urges a “look behind the immediate headline” to “analyze the longer-term processes at work” in our relationship to substances that have been with humans for centuries. (Feb.)