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Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the StateEpisodes

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  1. The 'Drink Question', Past and Present

    10/10Mark Whitaker asks leading historians how the past can inform present alcohol policy.

  2. The Doctors Take Over

    9/10How and why the NHS embarked on the hospital treatment of alcoholics in the 1960s.

  3. Improving the Pub

    8/10Mark Whitaker looks at how the pub industry responded to falling consumption in the 1920s.

  4. The Central Control Board of 1915

    7/10Mark Whitaker examines the state's role in the liquor trade during the First World War.

  5. Habitual Drunkards and the Asylum

    6/10Mark Whitaker examines the late 19th-century panic over habitual drunkards.

  6. Political Thinkers and the Drink Question

    5/10Mark Whitaker looks at how great 19th-century minds wrestled with the politics of alcohol.

  7. Temperance and the 1872 Licensing Act

    4/10Mark Whitaker looks at how the temperance movement took a grip on British political life.

  8. The Beer Act of 1830

    3/10Why the government in 1830 thought easier access to beer would solve drunkenness.

  9. The Gin Act of 1736

    2/10Mark Whitaker explores the 18th-century Gin Craze and the authorities' attempt to end it.

  10. King James I

    1/10Mark Whitaker looks at the campaign of King James I against drink.