This remarkable cultural history of England's 18th-century craze for gin—which first was called Geneva after the Dutch name for the juniper berries used to flavor the drink—is an illuminating trip through many layers of British society, from the heights of king and Parliament to the wasted thieves and whores in London gutters. After King William of Orange encouraged his Parliament in 1690 to pass an act encouraging the distilling of brandy and spirits from corn—a way of attacking France's lucrative brandy exports, as William was also declaring war on that country—it "opened the floodgates to the cheap spirits that were soon being sold in cellars and garrets all over London." Dillon deftly uses his skills as a novelist (Truth; Lies) to bring to life the half-century of debauchery that followed the 1690 acts in London, "where for a penny a dram, the poor man could fill his head with his own dreams; the market-woman could blank out the wet corner she sat on and fancy herself well-dressed, dry and feasting at Vauxhall pleasure gardens." More importantly for the success of this highly detailed and immensely engaging chronicle, Dillon is a superb researcher. Using contemporaneous newspaper accounts of notorious gin-induced crimes, Dillon tracks the ever-increasing rise in gin's popularity through numerous forms of social turmoil to a final acknowledgment "that Madam Geneva was here to stay, whatever ills she brought with her." Throughout, Dillon expertly displays the intricate connections between politics and business, pleasure and morality, public policy and illegal consumption. In an epilogue, Dillon carefully notes the similarities between the gin craze and such American phenomena as Prohibition and the current "war on drugs." (Feb.)
Forecast:A stylish cover and an intriguing title may help move some extra copies of this sophisticated cultural history. The quality of the writing and research, however, are what truly make this work worthy of note, though it may suffer from the earlier publication of Jessica Warner's
Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason (Forecasts, Aug. 5).
