Alcoholism in America: From Reconstruction to Prohibition

384 Pages·2007·1.31 MB·English

by  Sarah W. Tracy

Alcoholism in America
This page intentionally left blank
Alcoholism in America
From Reconstruction to Prohibition
Sarah W. Tracy
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore and London
© 2005 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2005
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
(Johns Hopkins Paperbacks edition, 2007)
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover
edition of this book as follows:
Tracy, Sarah W., 1963–
Alcoholism in America : from reconstruction to prohibition /
Sarah W. Tracy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8018-8119-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Alcoholism—United States—History. 2. Alcoholism—
Treatment—United States—History. 3. Alcoholism—
Hospitals—United States—History.
l. Title.
RC565.7.T73 2005
362.292′0973—dc22 2004025484
ISBN 10: 0-8018-8620-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 13: 978-0-8018-8620-1
A catalog record for this book is available from the British
Library.
To the memory of my grandfather,
F. Erwin Tracy, M.D.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction 1
1 Disease Concept(s) of Inebriety 25
2 Cultural Framing of Inebriety 63
3 Institutional Solutions for Inebriety 92
4 Public Inebriate Hospitals and Farm Colonies 122
5 The “Foxborough Experiment” 147
6 Building a Boozatorium 196
7 On the Vice and Disease of Inebriety 226
Conclusion 273
Notes 292
Index 347
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
There is a personal story behind my choosing to study the history of alco-
holism, but it does not involve alcohol. At times I have wished that I had a
more direct connection, rationalizing that I might have finished the book ear-
lier had I been propelled by the immediacy of the problem in my own life. But
the truth is that the more I have learned about the history of alcoholism—and
its present state—the more grateful I am that my life has not been directly af-
fected by it. Addiction to alcohol is a complex and devastating phenomenon:
medically, personally, and socially. My work on this book over the past decade
has given me the chance to meet dozens of people who have had problems
with alcohol. I have benefited from their willingness to share their experi-
ences and insights, and from their enthusiasm for the project.
Although I have developed a profound respect for individuals who con-
tend with addiction on a daily basis, as a historian my primary interest is in
the past. This book is an attempt to understand how and why many physi-
cians, social reformers, and heavy drinkers in an earlier day came to regard ha-
bitual drunkenness as a disease, and what they chose to do about it. I hope,
however, that my historical study will engage those with interests in contem-
porary addiction as well as historians of medicine, alcohol, and social welfare
policy in America.
I was drawn to the study of alcoholism while studying for my comprehen-
sive examinations in graduate school. Having defined the history of American
medicine, American social history, and the sociology of knowledge as my
three areas of interest, I made the commitment to finding a topic that would
link these different subjects. Ever patient as I searched for a topic, Charles
Rosenberg, my advisor at the University of Pennsylvania, dispatched me to
the Historical Collections of the College of Physicians for inspiration. There,
on a wintry Philadelphia day, I discovered that many late-nineteenth-century
physicians believed that “inebriety” and “dipsomania” were constitutional
diseases in which heredity played a heavy hand. My research antennae began