Customer Reviews

Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture, and Control

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Hanson, a sociologist, contrasts two positions on alcohol control: the socio-cultural model and the control-of-consumption model. The socio-cultural model, of which he is a strong advocate, says that that most people in most cultures most of the time drink alcohol responsibly and in moderation. This seems to be especially true in cultures or groups that accept drinking, but provide strong moral codes for its responsible use, starting from a young age with parental teaching.

The contrasting (neo-prohibitionist) view holds that alcohol itself is bad, that any use risks spiraling out of control and therefore any intervention - preferably complete abstinence - that reduces the mean consumption in a population is necessarily good.

The first chapter reviews the history of alcohol use. The second chapter describes cultural variations in alcohol use (and problems) in both pre-literate and modern groups. The third chapter reviews the American experience with alcohol over history with a special emphasis on the Prohibition and neo-prohibitionist movements. He presents the control-of-consumption (aka public health or single distribution) model and its weaknesses. The last chapter summarizes his argument for the socio-cultural model, with some very brief, general policy recommendations.

This book is short and easy to read. It's heavily referenced - as another reviewer pointed out Hanson has glued together a lot of quotes from others - but the references do allow you to check his reasoning. In spite of the explicitness with which he cites his sources, one is left wondering whether their selection is biased by his promotion of the socio-cultural model, and his use of primarily qualitative and historical data. Overall, though, this book presents a coherent and important argument that anyone working in alcohol control (or prevention or research) should be forced to read and attempt to rebut. The social and historical data should be studied carefully by those who think that alcoholism is a simple, medical disease due entirely to brain dysfunction.

The price is outrageous. Buy it used for a fraction of the list price.

This book was a very bland. The author simply took information from other authors and put those ideas together to form a book. The author failed to incorporate any of his own thoughts. Each page had more citations than actual composition. I would not recommend this book to anyone who has a choice.