Book Review: Sarah, T., & Acker, C. J. (Eds.). (2004). Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800 — 2000. Amherst & Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 414

• Published date: 01 December 2007
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016807310648
• Date: 01 December 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Review(s)
473
left dissatisfied, as in the case of the temporal ordering issue. A full discussion of these
issues would strengthen the book’s findings, findings that have merit and great potential for
delinquency prevention once the above concerns are addressed.
Allison Ann Payne
Villanova University
References
Cohen, A. (1955). Delinquent boys: The culture of the gang. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Gottfredson, G., D. Gottfredson, A. Payne, and N. Gottfredson. (2005). School Climate Predictors of School
Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. Journal of Research in
Crime and Delinquency, 42, 4, 412-445
Merton, R. (1938). Social structure and anomie. American Sociological Review, 3, 672-682.
Messner, S., M. Krohn, and A. Liska (eds.). (1989). Theoretical Integration in the Study of Deviance and Crime.
Albany: SUNY Press.
Payne, A., D. Gottfredson, and G. Gottfredson. (2003). Schools as Communities: The Relationships Among
Communal School Organization, Student Bonding, and School Disorder. Criminology, 41, 3, 749-777.
Sarah, T., & Acker, C. J. (Eds.). (2004). Altering American Consciousness:
The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800 – 2000.
Amherst & Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 414
DOI: 10.1177/0734016807310648
This edited volume started life as a set of conference papers, delivered in 1997, on the
subject of the history of drug use in American society. Out of this has grown a book that
aims to sweep across the geography and the history of America to offer an informed view
of changing attitudes and responses to drug use.
The book divides the collected essays into three broad sections. The first of these (and to
some extent the book’s introduction) provides the reader with an overview of the material.
The development of a language to describe drug and alcohol use, together with the value judg-
ments that inform that development, is followed by an essay that traces the shifts in policy
...