Dwarfs in ancient Egypt and Greece

from Norbert Elias's concept of the "civilizing process", Spode argues that the perception of drunkenness as a social problem came with the growing interdependences in modem western society and the demand for controlled, rational behaviour, especially after the industrial revolution. Accordingly, his book focuses on the two German temperance movements of the nineteenth century. The first one, dominated by the clergy and supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, succeeded in raising hundreds of thousands of people against the "plague of spirits", but quickly collapsed after the revolution of 1848. The second movement, gaining force in the 1 880s as part of social reform, was led by civil servants and academics. It had success among the working class, which formed its own temperance organizations, but radicalization towards complete abstinence soon alienated this second movement from the more permissive majority in the German population. National traditions of esteem for drinking as a symbol of physical strength and means of sociability may have played a role here, as Spode suggests. On the other hand he rightly highlights the disastrous links that were forged around 1900 between medical research into alcoholism and theories of degeneration and racial hygiene. As for the present, Spode observes that the paradigm of addiction, formulated in the early nineteenth century by Carl von Bruhl-Cramer and others, has pervaded modem interpretations of society. The notion of addictive behaviour or loss of control is now being applied not only to the consumption of drugs, but to food, work, sex, and leisure activities. The ultimate picture of a "modem society of addictions" is being created. This well-written book will appeal to a broad readership. For the medical historian, the analysis of German developments makes it a useful addition to the French and Anglo-American perspectives provided in Jean-Charles Soumia's A history ofalcoholism (1990). Dwarfs have long been, and remain, items of curiosity and entertainment, and deemed to have a childish intellect. In this study Veronique Dasen has attempted to penetrate such prejudices by investigating attitudes to dwarfism in ancient Egypt and Greece. Dasen's conclusions confirm the ambivalence of ancient societies towards physical disability, as reflected in mythology and practised in everyday life. While not fearing them as monstrosities and reviling them as scapegoats, Egyptians privileged dwarf deities as protective and healing spirits. While Egyptian and Athenian artists represented dwarfs as occupying positions of authority, they also marginalized dwarfs and depicted them …