Drink and British Politics

by John Greenaway

Author	: John Greenaway
Publisher	: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages	: 288
Release	: 2003-09-17
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 9780333917824

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The issue of alcohol has never been far from British politics. Initially, governments needed to control its sale for public order reasons and because it was a major source of revenue. Then in Victorian times a powerful temperance movement arose which sought to prohibit or severely curb the ''Demon Drink". This in turn aroused the hostility of the "Trade" and the issue became one of fierce electoral politics. After 1890 drink was interpreted more as a social reform question and then in the First World War, after a major moral panic, far-reaching measures of direct state control were imposed in the interests of national efficiency. Later in the twentieth century alcohol use came to be seen as an aspect of leisure and town planning and, more recently, as a health issue. Drawing upon a wide range of primary sources, John Greenaway uses the complex politics of the issue to shed light upon the changing political system and to test various theories of the policymaking process. Both historians and political scientists will be interested in this study.

Drink and British Politics Since 1830

by J. Greenaway

Author	: J. Greenaway
Publisher	: Springer
Total Pages	: 284
Release	: 2003-06-10
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 0230510361

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The issue of alcohol has never been far from British politics. Initially, governments needed to control its sale for public order reasons and because it was a major source of revenue. Then in Victorian times a powerful temperance movement arose which sought to prohibit or severely curb the 'Demon Drink'. This in turn aroused the hostility of the 'Trade' and the issue became one of fierce electoral politics. After 1890 drink was interpreted more as a social reform question and then in the First World War, after a major moral panic, far-reaching measures of direct state control were imposed in the interests of national efficiency. Later in the Twentieth century alcohol use came to be seen as an aspect of leisure and town planning and, more recently, as a health issue. Drawing upon a wide range of primary sources, John Greenaway uses the complex politics of the issue to shed light upon the changing political system and to test various theories of the policymaking process. Both historians and political scientists will be interested in this study.

Order, Order!

by Ben Wright

Author	: Ben Wright
Publisher	: Prelude Books
Total Pages	: 343
Release	: 2016-06-01
Genre	: Humor
ISBN	: 0715650823

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Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, smuggled wine up the Thames with the help of the Navy. Tony Blair confessed that a stiff drink and half a bottle of wine a night had become a helpful crutch while in office. Joseph Stalin flushed out traitors with vodka. The disintegration of Richard Nixon and Boris Yeltsin was largely down to drink. Winston Churchill was famous for his drinking, often taking a whisky and soda first thing in the morning and champagne ritually with dinner. But why did these politicians drink and what was their tipple of choice? How did drinking shape the decisions they made? Ben Wright, political correspondent for the BBC, explores the history of alcohol within politics, from the debauched drinking practices of eighteenth-century ministers to today, often based on his own experiences supping with politicians in Westminster bars. With exclusive interviews and in-depth research, Order, Order! uses alcohol as a lens through which to meet a remarkable cast of politicians, to understand their times and discover what drove them to drink. A story of boozy bon viveurs - but with many casualties too - and the complexity of the human condition and the pull of the bottle.

British Politics: A Very Short Introduction

by Anthony Wright

Author	: Anthony Wright
Publisher	: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages	: 153
Release	: 2013-05-30
Genre	: Law
ISBN	: 0199661103

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This book presents an introduction to the evolution and history of the British political system.

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

by Thora Hands

Author	: Thora Hands
Publisher	: Springer
Total Pages	: 198
Release	: 2018-06-18
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 331992964X

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This open access book surveys drinking in Britain between the Licensing Act of 1869 and the wartime regulations imposed on alcohol production and consumption after 1914. This was a period marked by the expansion of the drink industry and by increasingly restrictive licensing laws. Politics and commerce co-existed with moral and medical concerns about drunkenness and combined, these factors pushed alcohol consumers into the public spotlight. Through an analysis of public and private records, medical texts and sociological studies, the book investigates the reasons why Victorians and Edwardians consumed alcohol in the ways that they did and explores the ideas about alcohol that circulated in the period. This book shows that they had many reasons for purchasing and consuming alcoholic substances and these were driven by broader social, cultural, medical and commercial factors. Although drunkenness may have been the most visible consequence of alcohol consumption, it was not the only type of drinking behaviour. Alcohol played an important social role in the everyday lives of Victorians and Edwardians where its consumption held many different meanings.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History, 1800-2000

by David Brown

Author	: David Brown
Publisher	: Oxford University Press
Total Pages	: 717
Release	: 2018-03-29
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 0191024279

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The two centuries after 1800 witnessed a series of sweeping changes in the way in which Britain was governed, the duties of the state, and its role in the wider world. Powerful processes - from the development of democracy, the changing nature of the social contract, war, and economic dislocation - have challenged, and at times threatened to overwhelm, both governors and governed. Such shifts have also presented challenges to the historians who have researched and written about Britain's past politics. This Handbook shows the ways in which political historians have responded to these challenges, providing a snapshot of a field which has long been at the forefront of conceptual and methodological innovation within historical studies. It comprises thirty-three thematic essays by leading and emerging scholars in the field. Collectively, these essays assess and rethink the nature of modern British political history itself and suggest avenues and questions for future research. The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History thus provides a unique resource for those who wish to understand Britain's political past and a thought-provoking 'long view' for those interested in current political challenges.

The Politics of Drink in England, from Gladstone to Lloyd George

by David M. Fahey

Author	: David M. Fahey
Publisher	: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages	: 361
Release	: 2022-01-25
Genre	: Political Science
ISBN	: 1527578836

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This book is about alcoholic drink, political parties, and pressure groups. From the 1870s into the 1920s, excessive drinking by urban workers frightened the major political parties. They all wanted to reduce the number of public houses. It was not easy to find a way that would satisfy temperance reformers, many of them prohibitionists, and the licensed drink trade. Brewers demanded compensation when pubs were closed, but temperance reformers were vehemently opposed to this. The book highlights a prolonged struggle of vested interests and ideologies in this regard, showing that a Royal Commission in 1899 helped break the stalemate. In a controversial deal, brewers got compensation, but they had to pay for closing some of their own pubs. Later, during the First World War, the government experimented with an alternative to closing public houses, disinterested or non-commercial management, and considered State Purchase of the entire drink trade.

Food & Drink in Britain

by C. Anne Wilson

Author	: C. Anne Wilson
Publisher	: Academy Chicago Publishers, Limited
Total Pages	: 0
Release	: 2003
Genre	: Cooking, British
ISBN	: 9780897334877

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C. Anne Wilson Traces culinary practices and preferences from our earliest prehistoric forbears down to the generation of the Industrial Revolution, and offers an extraordinary taste of the times. She provides a tabletop perspective on class structure, religion, politics, and social custom, generously seasoned with such culinary and cultural tidbits as the importance of salt in English history and the role of romance in England's first taste of the wines of southernmost France. Readers will become acquainted with the sources of many of our current tastes and conventions. Discover "macrows," the prototype of macaroni, and that "whales, porpoises and sturgeon were all royal fish." Meringue, to the Elizabethans, was a "dishful of snow," and rather difficult to whip up before the advent of the fork in the late 17th century. Before the Reformation all buns were "hot cross" in order to ward off evil spirits that might prevent the bread rising. Adventurous readers who wish to dine as their ancestors did may do so; Ms. Wilson includes many authentic recipes--such as 17th century rice pudding--which add flavor of a unique kind. This cornucopia of custom and cuisine provides plenty of food for thought for everyone, and what could be of more interest if we are, indeed, what we eat?

The politics of alcohol

by James Nicholls

Author	: James Nicholls
Publisher	: Manchester University Press
Total Pages	: 429
Release	: 2013-07-19
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 1847797075

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Questions about drink – how it is used, how it should be regulated and the social risks it presents – have been a source of sustained and heated dispute in recent years. In The politics of alcohol, newly available in paperback, Nicholls puts these concerns in historical context by providing a detailed and extensive survey of public debates on alcohol from the introduction of licensing in the mid-sixteenth century through to recent controversies over 24-hour licensing, binge drinking and the cheap sale of alcohol in supermarkets. In doing so, he shows that concerns over drinking have always been tied to broader questions about national identity, individual freedom and the relationship between government and the market. He argues that in order to properly understand the cultural status of alcohol we need to consider what attitudes to drinking tell us about the principles that underpin our modern, liberal society. The politics of alcohol presents a wide-ranging, accessible and critically illuminating guide to the social, political and cultural history of alcohol in England. Covering areas including law, public policy, medical thought, media representations and political philosophy, it will provide essential reading for anyone interested in either the history of alcohol consumption, alcohol policy or the complex social questions posed by drinking today.