Dr Emma Major talks about gin
Posted on 16 December 2016
Dr Emma Major, Senior lecturer in Eighteenth Century Studies, has participated in the Radio 4 programme 'In Our Time', presented by Melvyn Bragg.
Dr Emma Major, who is just completing a research year funded by a British Academy Fellowship, has participated in the Radio 4 programme 'In Our Time', presented by Melvyn Bragg. Emma is a senior lecturer in Eighteenth Century Studies, and has been researching Protestant Dissent and citizenship in Britain in the period 1789-1829, the subject of her forthcoming monograph ‘Faithful Citizens 1789-1829’
There was a craze for gin in Britain in the mid-18th Century, which led to large sections of the population that had rarely or never drunk spirits before consuming two pints of gin a week. There followed attempts to control this addiction and Emma was able to regale the panel with cautionary tales from the period about women and the dangers of spontaneous combustion from too much gin drinking.
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