Oct 19, 2008
In Praise of Wine
Frank Ward glimpses a better world in the mirror of a wine glass and provides a very informative history of how the Swedish state sought to control the consumption of alcohol.
I have just one (minor) caveat. He makes a brief reference to Victorian England:"All of this produced a neurosis about alcohol [in Sweden] comparable to attitudes to sex in Victorian England." It's too bad he didn't read Michael Mason's The Making of Victorian Sexuality (OUP, 1994) and The Making of Victorian Sexual Attitudes (OUP, 1994). If he had, he likely wouldn't subscribe to one of the most enduring myths of our age.
I have just one (minor) caveat. He makes a brief reference to Victorian England:"All of this produced a neurosis about alcohol [in Sweden] comparable to attitudes to sex in Victorian England." It's too bad he didn't read Michael Mason's The Making of Victorian Sexuality (OUP, 1994) and The Making of Victorian Sexual Attitudes (OUP, 1994). If he had, he likely wouldn't subscribe to one of the most enduring myths of our age.