This book explains how the rise of temperance life assurance affected ideas surrounding the dangers of drinking and abstinence between 1840 and 1918.
James Kneale examines how temperance life insurance - initially a speculative business venture - evolved into a social experiment that played a crucial role in persuading ordinary people, doctors, and insurance firms that abstaining from alcohol was safer than drinking it. Drawing from archival materials, Kneale analyses contemporary stories from teetotallers and high-street temperance businesses, and investigates the broader impact on 'temperance towns' such as Manchester, Exeter, and the Pendle area.
By charting the evolution of the first temperance life assurance firm (UKT) from its difficult beginnings, to being the eighth largest British life assurance firm by the 1890s, the author demonstrates to readers how quickly social attitudes surrounding teetotalism changed, and why.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
James Kneale combines groundbreaking analysis of the business of temperance-life assurance companies-with exhaustive research. This is a marvelous book and an important one. Yes, it matters for temperance scholars but for others too, both in Britain and internationally. * David M. Fahey, Professor of History Emeritus, Miami University, USA * Kneale masterfully employs the tools of geography and history to trace the intricate networks defined and exposed by temperance life assurance. His meticulous excavation of the relationships that everyday people had with temperance is essential reading for anyone interested in the way temperance influenced the lives of Victorian Britain. * Dan Malleck, Professor, Brock University, Canada * Kneale's book takes a novel perspective on a familiar topic, and sheds new light as a result. Its detailed historical sketches will interest both specialist historians and general readers. The exploration of how insurance intersected with alcohol not only reveals changing contemporary attitudes but touches on issues that remain alive today. * Dr James Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, University of Stirling, UK *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Zielgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
mit Schutzumschlag
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 234 mm
Breite: 156 mm
Dicke: 25 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-350-52971-7 (9781350529717)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
James Kneale is Associate Professor of Geography at University College London, UK.
SECTION 1 ORDINARY TEMPERANCE
Introduction: A man walks into a life assurance office
1. Ordinary Temperance
2.Temperance Towns
SECTION 2 TEMPERANCE LIFE INSURANCE AS SPECULATIVE VENTURE AND SOCIAL EXPERIMENT, 1840-1850
3. Experiments: Thin and watery and mentally cranked
4. Statistics and forms: Those that don't drink don't die so fast
5. Networks: Proselytizing fervour, minute inquisitorial inquiry
SECTION 3 IMPROVING TEMPERANCE LIVES, 1850-1918
6. Improvement: A very business-like argument
7. Ordinary lives: The Sceptre sample
8. Medicine: An institution for educating the medical men
CONCLUSIONS
9. Temperance life assurance and the new moderationism
