TO YOUR HEALTH: Thy Pleasures, Problems and Politics of Alcohol

If data on alcohol is what you're looking for--the Arabic origins of the word, the chemical composition of the drug, a short history of the temperance movement, the philosophical and psychoanalytical origins of AA--then this texty tome will supply you with more information than you're likely to need. In point of view, however, it is another of the recent books--like Harry Milt's Alcoholism (p. 950)--to question the ""disease concept"" of problem drinking. The authors include a rundown of available therapy programs--weighted toward family therapy--that look upon alcoholism as a symptom of marital or other stress, rather than as an allergic reaction or an illness. Once the stress is dealt with, according to this still-unsubstantiated theory, drinking presents no further problem. Otherwise the book is unexceptionable: thorough but dry,