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University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2012 Spirited Measures and Victorian Hangovers: Public Attitudes to Alcohol, the Law and Moral Regulation. Yeomans, Henry http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/1006 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author‟s prior consent. 2 SPIRITED MEASURES AND VICTORIAN HANGOVERS: PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO ALCOHOL, THE LAW AND MORAL REGULATION. by Henry Yeomans A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Plymouth Law School Submitted July 2011 Deposited with Corrections May 2012 3 Henry Yeomans - Abstract Spirited Measures and Victorian Hangovers: Public Attitudes to Alcohol, the Law and Moral Regulation. From alarm about the prospect of „twenty-four drinking‟ to campaigns for a minimum price per unit, the last decade has shown that alcohol consumption is an inflammatory issue in this country. It has become commonplace to hear that drinking is „out of control‟ and that it is a new and worsening problem largely unique to Britain. However, comparative research reveals that alcohol consumption in Britain is not unusually high and even a cursory glance at history shows that extreme bouts of alarm about drinking have been common on these shores since at least the eighteenth century. What is at the root of this national neurosis about alcohol? This thesis considers the historical development of both public attitudes to alcohol and laws relating to alcohol in England and Wales. Covering issues of crime, disorder, health and immorality, it investigates the various means through which alcohol has been constructed as a social problem through time. This qualitative focus on change and continuity in history allows for the attitudinal and legal impact of certain key developments to be assessed. Particular attention is paid to the Victorian temperance movement which, drawing especially on the ideas of Hunt and Ruonavaara, is characterised as a moral regulation project. It is argued that, although the temperance movement itself declined in the early twentieth century, the moral regulation project it initiated continues, in certain ways, to shape public attitudes towards drinking and the legal regulation of alcohol in the present day. Rather than being a response to contemporary behavioural trends, this thesis proposes that continuing anxieties, apparent in how we think about and regulate alcohol, are more usefully understood as a hangover from the Victorian period. 4 Contents Introduction Alcohol as a Problem in England and Wales: Gin Lane Onwards…………………..17 1) Comparative and Chronological Curiosities…………………………………….17 2) Orientation and Objectives………………………………………………………..22 3) Chapter Synopses…………………………………………………………………27 Chapter One Thinking About Drink: Existing Literature on Public Attitudes and Regulation of Alcohol………………………………………………………………………………………30 1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………….30 2) The Orthodox Approach to the „Drink Problem‟…………………………………31 3) Historical Research on Attitudes to Alcohol……………………………………..38 4) Sociological Perspectives on Drink………………………………………………44 4.1) Social Movement Research…...…………………………………………….45 4.2) Explaining Social Problems: Anxiety and Discourse……………………...46 4.3) Explaining Social Problems: Episodes and Processes……...…………...50 5) Law and Morality…………………………………………………………………...56 6) Summary……………………………………………………………………………62 Chapter Two Developing a Methodology for Historical Discourse Analysis…………………………64 1) Introduction…………………………………………………………………………64 2) Human Agency and Social Structure…………………………………………….64 3) Sources…………………………………………………………………………......68 3.1) Press Sources………………………………………………………………...68 3.2) Legal Sources…………………………………………………………………70 3.3) Temperance Sources………………………………………………………...72 3.4) Caveats on Sources………………………………………………………….73 4) Timeframe…………………………………………………………………………..74 4.1) Longitudinal Design…………………………………………………………..74 4.2) Finding the Episodes within the Processes………………………………..77 5) Selecting Sources………………………………………………………………….83 5.1) 1700-1840……………………………………………………………………..83 5.2) 1872……………………………………………………………………………86 5.3) 1914-1921……………………………………………………………………..87 5.4) 1961-1965……………………………………………………………………..88 5.5) 2003-2010……………………………………………………………………..90 6) Methodological Issues……………………………………………………………..91 5 7) Summary……………………………………………………………………………94 Chapter Three The Genesis of Temperance and the Teetotal Turn………………………………...…95 1) Introduction…………………………………………………………………………95 2) The „Second Necessity of Life‟……………………………………………………96 3) Classical Virtues and Georgian Excesses……………………………………....98 3.1) The Problem of Gin…………………………………………………………..98 3.2) Contextualising Response to Gin-Drinking……………………………….100 3.3) Legislation and Reflection………………………………………………….104 4) The „Temperance Reformation‟…………………………………………………107 4.1) Shifting Attitudes in 1820s………………………………………………….107 4.2) Importing the Temperance Society in 1829………………………………112 4.3) The Teetotal Turn…………………………………………………………...115 5) The Beer Act 1830………………………………………………………………..126 6) Reflections………………………………………………………………………...131 Chapter Four Balancing Acts or Spirited Measures? The Temperance Movement and Legal Developments…………………………………………………………………………….135 1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………..135 2) A „New Moralizing Subtext‟………………………………………………………136 3) The Split Personality of Victorian Temperance………………………………..137 4) Legal Impacts of the Temperance Movement…………………………………145 4.1) The Birth of the Modern Licensing System……………………………….146 4.2) A Wishy Washy Tyranny........................................................................151 4.3) A „Popular Awakening‟?.........................................................................158 4.4) Reflecting on Legal Changes………………………………………………161 5) Attitudinal or Heuristic Impacts of the Temperance Movement……………..161 5.1) „…to the spirits of just men more perfect‟………………………………...161 5.2) Moral Obligations and Behavioural Choices……………………………..166 5.3) Reflecting on Attitudinal or Heuristic Changes…………………………..170 6) The Legacy of the Temperance Movement……………………………………171 Chapter Five The Apogee of the Temperance Movement: War and its Aftermath, 1914-1921….176 1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………..176 2) Drink as a National Problem…………………………………………………….178 3) Responses to War………………………………………………………………..180 6 3.1) The Enigma of British Alcohol Policy 1914-1918………………………..181 3.2) What was the British Government‟s Response?...................................186 3.3) „England Expects Every Man to Do His Duty‟……………………………190 3.4) „An Indefinitely Mighty Force‟: The Pledge and Providentialism……….197 3.5) Summary: 1914-1918……………………………………………………….199 4) Post-War: What Now?...................................................................................200 4.1) To CCB or Not To CCB?.......................................................................200 4.2) The Licensing Act 1921…………………………………………………….204 4.3) A „Return to Freedom‟?..........................................................................206 4.4) A Temperance Victory?.........................................................................209 5) The Apogee of the Temperance Movement………………………………...…213 Chapter Six The New Drink Problem Part One: Alcohol, Crime and Disorder…………………...215 1) Introduction……………..…………………………………………………………215 2) Drink and Crime in Historical Context…………………………………………..216 3) Drink in the 1960s………………………………………………………………...219 3.1) Baby Boomers as „Baby Boozers‟…………………………………………219 3.2) „Don‟t ask a man to drink and drive‟……………………………………….223 3.3) Regulating the New Drink Problem………………………………………..226 3.4) Paint it Black…………………………………………………………………231 3.5) Reflections on the 1960s…………………………………………………...234 4) The Narrative of De-Regulation…………………………………………………235 4.1) Liberalism and Intoxication…………………………………………………235 4.2) Civilising the Alcoholic Nation……………………………………………...237 4.3) „Whoops, No Apocalypse‟………………………………………………….243 5) The Attitudinal Heritage of Victorian Temperance…………………………….248 5.1) The Drunk Man of Europe………………………………………………….248 5.2) „Please Drink Responsibly‟…………………………………………………255 5.3) The Temperance Project Continued………………………………………261 6) Reflections: The Resurgent Tide of Moralisation……………………………...262 Chapter Seven The New Drink Problem Part Two: Health, Harm and Risk………………………….269 1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………..269 2) Drink in Historical Context……………………………………………………….270 2.1) The Emergence of Public Health……………………………………...…..271 2.1.1) The „Ulcer in the Social Body‟……………………………………271 2.1.2) The Spreading „Social Disease‟……………………………...….278 2.2) The Disease Model of Alcoholism…………………………………………283 7 2.2.1) The Marriage of Medicine and Morality…………………………283 2.2.2) Separating the Medical and the Moral………………………….287 2.3) Reflections…………………………………………………………………...292 3) Debates About Alcohol and Health, 2003-2010……………………………….292