Editor’s Note: Frequent readers may be familiar with the blog’s ongoing promotion of new, relevant dissertation research, but periodically we also highlight work published in journals and other peer-reviewed outlets. Each of the articles below appeared in recent issues of the journal Contemporary Drug Problems and concern topics of interest in countries across Europe. All titles contain links to the respective articles. Enjoy!
“Addiction in Europe, 1860s-1960s: Concepts and Responses in Italy, Poland, Austria, and the United Kingdom”
Virginia Berridge, Alex Mold, Franca Beccaria, Irmgard Eisenbach-Stangl, Grazyna Herczynska, Jacek Moskalewicz, Enrico Petrilli, Suzanne Taylor
Abstract: Concepts play a central part in the formulation of problems and proposed solutions to the use of substances. This article reports the initial results from a cross European historical study, carried out to a common methodology, of the language of addiction and policy responses in two key periods, 1860–1930 and the 1950s and 1960s. It concludes that the language of addiction was varied and nonstandard in the first period. The Anglo-American model of inebriety did not apply across Europe but there was a common focus on theories of heredity and national degeneration. After World War II, there was a more homogenous language but still distinct national differences in emphasis and national interests and policy responses to different substances. More research will be needed to deepen understanding of the conditions under which these changes took place and the social and policy appeal of disease theories.