Craze : Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861976011 ISBN 13: 9781861976017

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Synopsis

Gin took London by storm in the first half of the 18th cetury. It was the 'original urban drug.' 'Cheap, potent and readily available', It aided London's poor in escaping the wretchedness of their lives and was considered a public menace by Defoe and Johnson. In this book the author gives us the whole story of Gin.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Rotgut gin—cheap, widely available, and remarkably potent—was the overwhelming drug of choice among London’s working poor in the early 1700s. Sold for pennies in taverns and squalid gin shops, on street corners and even in jails, gin was the original opiate of the masses, plunging England’s capital into chaos and giving rise to the first modern drug scare. Craze is an engaging social history of gin and the men and women whose lives it touched: the poor who drank it, the distillers who made it, the members of Parliament who feared it, and the prime minister who relied on its tax revenues to line his pockets. Offering a rich political, social, and economic history of gin and the London of Hogarth and Dr. Johnson, Craze will intoxicate you with its blend of erudition, style, and wit.

From the Back Cover:

“Warner evokes a vivid picture of eighteenth-century London, complete with its public hangings and slums that seemed to overflow with gin.”
—The Seattle Times

“Social history at its gimlet-eyed best.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Jessica Warner’s] prose is both lively and accessible, and she keeps the narrative moving along.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“Fascinating...a crisp, detailed review of the history of the place and period.”
—Baltimore Sun

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
• ISBN 10: 1861976011
• ISBN 13: 9781861976017
• Binding: Paperback