Overview

This book charts the history of gin from its arrival in England in the sixteenth century to the present day. In doing so it uses a range of perspectives: economic, social, cultural and political to give a rounded picture of how the spirit developed in the way it did over some 400 years. It looks at how gin’s popularity has ebbed and flowed over the centuries among different groups in society. It is therefore concerned with the drinkers of gin and why they chose it and at the meanings which they attached to its consumption. Gin was particularly popular with women and the spirit is often associated with them, in phrases like Mother’s Ruin. This also alerts us to the fact that gin has often had a bad press, never more so than in the infamous Gin Craze of the first half of the eighteenth century, so vividly depicted in Hogarth’s Gin Lane. The book attempts to tell something of the real history of gin beneath the frequent condemnation. It ends with the resurgence of gin’s popularity with the emergence of so-called designer gins in the twenty-first century.

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9781835537039

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Reviews

‘Gin is a clear liquid with a clouded history. Yet ‘Mother’s Ruin’ is now a premium craft product. Gin and the English is an important guide to this remarkable transformation. With an impressive mix of literary and archival sources, Paul Jennings reveals the cultural attitudes, political forces, and economic realities that have shaped English relationships with gin since the sixteenth century. The book is richly illustrated with over 90 figures that not only establish familiar historical tropes but lift our understanding of gin’s place in society beyond them.’ David Beckingham, University of Nottingham

Author Information

Paul Jennings is a retired university lecturer, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a member of various historical societies including the Historical Association, Social History Society and the History of Education Society.

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