The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions

James Runciman attacks the comfortable habits that allow social harm to flourish, beginning with Britain's drinking culture. His opening essay argues that figures and public denunciations fail to convey the suffering of individual people. He also challenges a society that honours wealthy brewers while condemning the trade that made their fortunes. Personal understanding and close attention to the drinker's life form the basis of his proposed response.

The collection ranges across friendship, sea travel, pets, discipline, summer walks and sporting ethics. In the discussion of horse racing, Runciman describes dishonest tactics and questions the admiration given to people who profit from them. His direct, indignant voice links these varied subjects through concerns about responsibility and public values. Readers interested in social reform can see how a moral argument takes shape through remembered lives, concrete incidents and criticism of everyday respectability.