Review: Alcoholism (The Facts)

I just got a copy of the newly-published fourth editon of "Alcoholism (The Facts)" by Ann M. Manzardo et al.  Alcoholism is often thought of as a men’s issue, so you might wonder what this has to do with feminism.  In fact, millions of women in the US suffer from alcohol use disorders.  Although this demographic has been neglected in the past, the fourth edition of this book has a new chapter: "Women and Alcohol."

I first discovered this title in its earlier editions, by the late Donald W. Goodwin.  I had been trying to reconcile some of the seeming contradictions about alcoholism and addiction in the popular literature, and this book was an oasis of rationality amongst the of moral judgements, social agendas, and bad science present in most other books on the subject.  From both personal experience and my research, I came to believe that alcohol and addiction were very much women’s issues, although not ones at the forefront of feminist thought.  So I was quite excited to see the authors of the new edition take these issues on, but how did they do?  In short, quite well.  The book is factual, not preachy, and it provides crucial information for anyone interested in social issues, and anyone who drinks, no longer leaving out an entire sex.

The new key points about alcohol and women include:

• Alcohol disorders are more common among men, but more severe when they occurs among women
• Alcohol disorders often co-occur with eating disorders among women
• Working mothers are less likely to develop alcohol problems
• Most cases of violence against women occur when both the man and the woman have been drinking
• Discusses both the history of social attitudes towards women and alcohol as well as the the biological differences between alcohol metabolism in men and women.

I like this book because it honestly presents the currently accepted scientific theories on alcohol and related problems, which I can vouch for from my own studies into the scientific literature.  My only complaint is that since it doesn’t cite its sources, its claims are not easily verifiable, a common but unfortunate trend among popular science books.  All in all however, I think it’s an excellent source of information about a condition that plays a huge role in our culture and individual lives.