Drink by Ann Dowsett Johnston

Drink by Ann Dowsett Johnston

In Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, award-winning journalist Anne Dowsett Johnston combines in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, and delivers a groundbreaking examination of a shocking yet little recognized epidemic threatening society today: the precipitous rise in risky drinking among women and girls.

With the feminist revolution, women have closed the gender gap in their professional and educational lives. They have also achieved equality with men in more troubling areas as well. In the U.S. alone, the rates of alcohol abuse among women have skyrocketed in the past decade. DUIs, "drunkorexia" (choosing to limit eating to consume greater quantities of alcohol), and health problems connected to drinking are all rising--a problem exacerbated by the alcohol industry itself.

Battling for women's dollars and leisure time, corporations have developed marketing strategies and products targeted exclusively to women. Equally alarming is a recent CDC report showing a sharp rise in binge drinking, putting women and girls at further risk.

As she brilliantly weaves in-depth research, interviews with leading researchers, and the moving story of her own struggle with alcohol abuse, Johnston illuminates this startling epidemic, dissecting the psychological, social, and industry factors that have contributed to its rise, and exploring its long-lasting impact on our society and individual lives.

Ann Dowsett Johnston, a writer and editor known for her expertise in higher education and alcohol policy, has won five National Magazine Awards. She spent the majority of her professional career at Maclean's magazine, where she was best recognized as the principal architect of the university-rankings problem. She received the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and the Southam Fellowship in Journalism. She is a Queen's University graduate and a former vice principal at McGill University. She currently resides in Toronto.