Lady Lushes

According to the popular press in the mid twentieth century, American women, in a misguided attempt to act like men in work and leisure, were drinking more. “Lady Lushes” were becoming a widespread social phenomenon. From the glamorous hard-drinking flapper of the 1920s to the disgraced and alcoholic wife and mother played by Lee Remick in the 1962 film “Days of Wine and Roses,” alcohol consumption by American women has been seen as both a prerogative and as a threat to health, happiness, and the social order. In Lady Lushes, medical historian Michelle L. McClellan traces the story of the female alcoholic from the late-nineteenth through the twentieth century. She draws on a range of sources to demonstrate the persistence of the belief that alcohol use is antithetical to an idealized feminine role, particularly one that glorifies motherhood. Lady Lushes offers a fresh perspective on the importance of gender role ideology in the formation of medical knowledge and authority.

Why do pretty housewives like Amy Collins so often fall into that common trap - the afternoon hour at some bar? Do they drink because of loneliness, boredom with a society that offers too little to women? Or is it the other way around? Is it the alcohol itself that generates the urge for male companionship, excitement, thrills? A heavenly body in a deadly orbit of men and martinis, the golden Amy wasn’t old enough to vote. But she was old enough, smart enough, to know life need not be dull while Chip, her lusty husband, was away. All she had to do was drown her inhibitions in a bottle, then throw herself into the arms of the nearest man. If Chip learned of it, she could still hold him. He loved her, didn’t he? Besides she was by far the prettiest, sexiest thing in sight!

In this fascinating history of alcohol in postwar American culture, Lori Rotskoff draws on short stories, advertisements, medical writings, and Hollywood films to investigate how gender norms and ideologies of marriage intersected with scientific and popular ideas about drinking and alcoholism. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, recreational drinking became increasingly accepted among white, suburban, middle-class men and women. But excessive or habitual drinking plagued many families. How did people view the "problem drinkers" in their midst? How did husbands and wives learn to cope within an "alcoholic marriage"? And how was drinking linked to broader social concerns during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War era? By the 1950s, Rotskoff explains, mental health experts, movie producers, and members of self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon helped bring about a shift in the public perception of alcoholism from "sin" to "sickness." Yet alcoholism was also viewed as a family problem that expressed gender-role failure for both women and men. On the silver screen (in movies such as The Lost Weekend and The Best Years of Our Lives) and on the printed page (in stories by such writers as John Cheever), in hospitals and at Twelve Step meetings, chronic drunkenness became one of the most pressing public health issues of the day. Shedding new light on the history of gender, marriage, and family life from the 1920s through the 1960s, this innovative book also opens new perspectives on the history of leisure and class affiliation, attitudes toward consumerism and addiction, and the development of a therapeutic culture.

This book examines North American women's engagement with their health systems and asks to what extent national citizenship has shaped women's health. Authors provide a much-needed analysis of the dynamic decades after 1945, when both Canada and the United States began using federal funds to expand health-care access and biomedical research and authority reached new heights. (Midwest).

This book raises key questions about public policy, the politicization of medical diagnosis, and the persistent failure to address the treatment needs of pregnant alcoholic women. The author traces the history of FAS from a medical problem to moral judgment that stigmatizes certain mothers but falls to extend to them the services that might actually reduce the incidence of this diagnosis.

Bottoms up! This landmark celebration of women and drink chips away at traditional images of gender, one ice-cube at a time.

Winner of the 2020 Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) Counselling Book Award Enlightening and practical, Addictions Counseling Today invites students into the heart of addictive thinking, offering first-person accounts of what it is like to experience different addictions. The text covers the range of addictions from alcohol, drug abuse, and nicotine to various process addictions, including sex, internet, gaming, social media, and gambling. Also included are the various theories and models of addiction, with a unique chapter on the neuroscience of addiction. Focusing on the new DSM-V classifications for addiction with an emphasis on CACREP and treatment, this provocative, contemporary text is an essential reference for both students and practitioners wanting to gain a deeper understanding of those with addiction. Online Resources Free PowerPoint® slides with video for instructors are available with this text.

A blind detective separates fact from fiction to save an innocent writer in this mystery by the author of Blind Man’s Bluff. Following the loss of his sight in World War I, ex–intelligence officer Capt. Duncan Maclain honed his other senses and became one of the most successful and well-known private investigators in New York City . . . Acclaimed novelist Larmar Jordan and his wife, Lucia, are throwing a cocktail party in their luxury Fifth Avenue apartment. Among the guests are their friend Sybella Ford and her fiancé, Duncan Maclain. Everyone is in high spirits until the arrival of Larmar’s mistress, Troy Singleton. Maclain may be unable to see, but even he can tell that certain partygoers are far from pleased by her presence. However, the real drama unfolds when Troy returns the following day—only to wind up dead on the terrace. The police are certain Larmar pulled the trigger. He was the only person home at the time, and the murder weapon came from his extensive gun collection—but he didn’t do it. At Lucia’s request, Maclain takes the case. Now, the sightless sleuth must quickly unravel this twisted tale of murder, before the judge throws the book at Larmar . . . Baynard Kendrick was the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army during World War I. While in London, he met a blind English soldier whose observational skills inspired the character of Capt. Duncan Maclain. Kendrick was also a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and winner of the organization’s Grand Master Award.