Liquor, The Servant of Man-W.H. Smith and F. C. Helwig
(Walton Hall Smith-Ferdnand C Helwig MD)
This is one of the first attempts to examine drinking, as practiced by the “social “drinker. While they don’t deny the existence of alcoholism, their book is focused on the more common aspects of the use of alcohol. Of interest largely for historical reasons, this is not a treatise on drinking, but rather an attempt to explain the phenomenon.
Published by Garden City Publishing Company, NY copyright 1939, reprint edition 1948. This is Hard Cover book with a brown cloth cover; with black titles on the spine. Size is 6 by 8 inches, 273 pages.
This book written about the time AA was being formed, treats alcohol as something to be used by man and denies the affects that alcoholism has on societies around the world. This book has a nice 46-page bibliography of books on Alcohol published before 1939.
This book is an examination of the effects of drinking on the individual and society. The history and background of the practice of drinking, the effects on the body, the benefits of liquor in disease, liquor and sex, the effect of liquor on the races of mankind, the reasons for drinking, case histories and more.