Liverpool : the making of a licensed city -- Liberty on license -- Between teetotalism and free trade : the rise of temperance politics in Liverpool -- Mapping drink : the spatial logic of social reform -- Attacking the licensing system : the 'twin evils' of drunkenness and prostitution -- Women and the public house -- The reformed licensing system : slum clearance and social reform -- 'Liverpool's temperance lesson to the nation'? : the challenge of compensation -- The licensed city at war -- Conclusions : liberalism's local logic
Summary
In nineteenth-century Britain few cities could rival Liverpool for recorded drunkenness. Civic pride at Liverpool's imperial influence was undercut by anxieties about social problems that could all be connected to alcohol, from sectarian unrest and prostitution in the city's streets to child neglect and excess mortality in its slums. These dangers, heightened in Liverpool by the apparent connections between the drink trade and the city's civic elite, marked urban living and made alcohol a pressing political issue. As a temperance movement emerged to tackle the dangers of drink, campaigners challenged policy makers to re-imagine the acceptable reach of government. While national leaders often failed to agree on what was practically and philosophically palatable, social reformers in Liverpool focused on the system that licensed the sale of drink in the city's pubs and beerhouses. By reforming licensing, they would later boast, Liverpool had tackled its reputation as the drunkenness c... Publisher description
Notes
1 Liverpool: The making of a licensed city2 Liberty on licence3 Between teetotalism and free trade: The rise of temperance politics in Liverpool4 Mapping drink: The spatial logic of social reform5 Attacking the licensing system: The 'twin evils' of drunkenness and prostitution6 Women and the public house7 The reformed licensing system: Slum clearance and social reform8 ' Liverpool's temperance lesson to the nation'? The challenge of compensation9 The licensed city at war10 Conclusions: Liberalism's local logic
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-283) and index
