Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter One A Tale of Temperance and Drink 1870–1914
- Chapter Two Vodka, Absinthe and Drunkenness on Britain's Streets in 1914: A Tale of Fear and Exaggeration?
- Chapter Three Best Laid Plans? Lloyd George and the Drink Question
- Chapter Four Restrictive or Constructive? The Early Stages of the Central Control Board
- Chapter Five The Carlisle Experiment: Lord D'Abernon's ‘Model Farm’
- Chapter Six ‘Helping our weaker sisters to go straight’: Women and Drink during the War
- Chapter Seven Reforming the Working Man
- Chapter Eight State Purchase and the Waning of the Central Control Board
- Conclusion: The End of the Central Control Board
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Two - Vodka, Absinthe and Drunkenness on Britain's Streets in 1914: A Tale of Fear and Exaggeration?
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter One A Tale of Temperance and Drink 1870–1914
- Chapter Two Vodka, Absinthe and Drunkenness on Britain's Streets in 1914: A Tale of Fear and Exaggeration?
- Chapter Three Best Laid Plans? Lloyd George and the Drink Question
- Chapter Four Restrictive or Constructive? The Early Stages of the Central Control Board
- Chapter Five The Carlisle Experiment: Lord D'Abernon's ‘Model Farm’
- Chapter Six ‘Helping our weaker sisters to go straight’: Women and Drink during the War
- Chapter Seven Reforming the Working Man
- Chapter Eight State Purchase and the Waning of the Central Control Board
- Conclusion: The End of the Central Control Board
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE WAR BEGAN calmly. Readers of The Times were assured that stocks of champagne in France were safe and that 1914 would be a very good year similar to the year of the Franco Prussian war. The Wine Trade Review concurred, describing the year as one of ‘exceptional quality’, adding that the vintage would have the additional prestige of ‘the war year’. This relaxed attitude did not last. The onset of conflict heralded the beginnings of a new epoch in the drink debate. Beer drinkers in particular were in for a hard time. The early months of the war witnessed a renewal of anti-drink campaigning and an escalating press interest in the issue. Letter pages were filled by anxious correspondents distressed by continued drinking supposedly indicative of a decline in moral standards on the home front. When war came the language of moral virtue rang truer than ever.
This chapter will consider the earliest political and social responses to the drink problem during the war. New totems of societal breakdown emerged such as the drunken soldier and the neglectful drunken mother which led to widespread fear-mongering and the perception of a national drink crisis during these months. Simmering undercurrents of hostility to drink emerged into the public sphere once more via these easily communicated stereotypes, which aided the swift transfusion of anti-drink thought to society at large.
The war shattered Britain's sense of security. Renewed attention was focused from the outset upon the drink problem. The war was meant to be a renewal and an exposition of the nation's noble values but, instead, drunkenness brought uncertainty. The control of drinking was again an issue of national interest and debates concerning alcohol garnered a much wider audience. Temperance advocates set about making their familiar anti-drink arguments with vigour to a more engaged audience. As the Dundee Advertiser observed, after less than two weeks of war:
The movement in favour of early closing is not a puritanical movement. It has the support of multitudes of men and women who have the scantiest sympathy with Puritanical sentiment and who are simply conscious of the moral and economic incongruity of maintaining the fullest facilities for the waste of money on intoxicating drink at a time when the fate of the nation is in the balance.
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- Pubs and PatriotsThe Drink Crisis in Britain during World War One, pp. 39 - 66Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2013