Alcohol: The World's Favorite Drug. This item is unavailable.Alcohol: The World's Favorite Drug

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. Already considered a classic in the field in England, Alcohol has proved to be fascinating reading for drinkers and nondrinkers alike.

Griffith Edwards is one of the world's leading experts on alcohol. Born in India, he received his M.D. from Oxford University. For 40 years Edwards has made a specialty of being both fair-minded and catholic in his study of alcoholism. He has made the Addiction Research Unit - more recently the National Addiction Center - at the Maudsley Hospital in London, the finest international center for postgraduate education in addiction in the world. He is editor-in-chief of the scientific journal, Addiction. For many years he has been a frequent visitor to the US and was a consultant to the White House Office on the prevention of drug abuse. He has been awarded many major international scientific prizes, including the Nathan B. Eddy medal of the US College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the Jellinek Memorial Prize, and the annual award of the American Educational and Research Society on Alcohol. He was named a Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 1987, awarded for services to social science and medicine. Married with two grown-up children, he and his wife live in Greenwich, England.