Drinking Occasions

The main purpose of this book is to describe the variety of drinking occasions that exist around the world, primarily in modern, industrialized countries. As such, it celebrates the diversity of normal drinking behavior and illustrates a wide range of beneficial drinking patterns. Attention is also paid to the relations between drink and culture that prevail in non-Western societies and in developing countries. The aims of the book are twofold: to deal directly with the challenge of how to define responsible drinking in the face of the world's many different drinking styles, and to portray the many ways in which people have thought about or used alcohol as an integral part of their culture

This is the tenth volume in the Research Advances series and the seventh published by Plenum Press. Volume 10 is another omnibus volume, providing specialized and advanced reviews in a number of areas related to the use of alcohol, illicit drugs, and tobacco. We include also a brief history of the Center for Alcohol Studies that gives Mark Keller's unique perspective on this noted institution. Two of the chapters are decidedly longer than the others-very long chapters have appeared occasionally in the past, and we think that it is one of the strengths of the series that we are able to accommodate such reviews. Again the editorial board has changed. After several years of service, Reginald G. Smart has stepped down. New to the board are Helen M. Annis, Michael S. Goodstadt, Lynn T. Kozlowski, and Evelyn R. Vingilis. This is likely to be the sole volume for which Goodstadt is on the board, since before completion of this volume he moved from the Addiction Research Foundation to the Center for Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University.

Alcohol is a killerâ€"1 of every 13 deaths in the United States is alcohol-related. In addition, 5 percent of the population consumes 50 percent of the alcohol. The authors take a close look at the problem in a "classy little study," as The Washington Post called this book. The Library Journal states, "...[T]his is one book that addresses solutions....And it's enjoyably readable....This is an excellent review for anyone in the alcoholism prevention business, and good background reading for the interested layperson." The Washington Post agrees: the book "...likely will wind up on the bookshelves of counselors, politicians, judges, medical professionals, and law enforcement officials throughout the country."

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

Graphs, tables and maps.

First published in 2003, The Perfect Drink for Every Occasion offers mixed drinks for virtually every situation imaginable. Getting married? Got a new job? Been a long day? Need to lose weight? Whatever the occasion, we’ve got the libation—complete with recipes, secrets, and tips. This new edition is updated with a fresh design and a host of all-new occasions (at last, you’ll know what to drink if you’re watching Mad Men with your coworkers). Loaded with recipes for Margaritas, White Russians, Gin Rickeys, Harvey Wallbangers, Cosmopolitans, and 145 other favorites, The Perfect Drink for Every Occasion is comprehensive enough to be the only bar book you’ll ever need.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This volume is an important contribution to our understanding of culture and alcohol in the United States. Its appearance is also a milestone in the history of alcohol studies in American anthropology. Over the last six years, the volume's editors, initially along with Miriam Rodin, have served as the coorganizers of the Alcohol and Drug Study Group of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). In this capacity, they have organized sessions at the AAA and other meetings, greatly strengthened the research network with a regular and informative newsletter, and painstakingly promoted the publication of anthropological work on al cohol and drugs. Appearing just as the responsibility for the Study Group is passed on to others, this book is a fitting emblem of the care and energy with which its editors have built an institutional nexus for alcohol and drug anthropology in North America. The contents of this volume offer a uniquely wide sampling of the diversity of cultural patterns that make up the American experience with alcohol. The collective portrait the editors have assembled extends in several dimensions: through time and history, across such social differ entiations as gender, age-grade, and social class, and through such major social institutions as the church and the family. Clearly the dominant dimension of variation in the material that follows, however, is ethnicity. The book offers us a sampler of unprecedented richness of the different experiences with alcohol of American ethnoreligious groups.