have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years thus establishing
alcohol control historically as the first social policy. Yet, given its extended
history, is it really possible to view alcohol policy before the twentieth
century in the same light as more current efforts to curb the threats to
health, wealth, and order from alcohol, drugs, diseases, environmental
degradation, or other perceived hazards? If so, a deeper examination of the
history of alcohol control policy could lend greater insights into what
exactly constitutes a “modern” social policy, versus premodern, or even
ancient. Before embarking on a brief tour d’horizon of the history of
alcohol control policies, it will first be necessary to more closely scrutinize
the study of social policy itself. Such an examination usefully serves to redirect
our attention to the growth of social policies in the context of state
development, pointing in particular to the maturation of state capacity,
and the superseding of traditional revenue-generation and social control
policy functions by a more general interest in the promotion of the health
and well-being of the populace. I contend that modernity, as it relates to
social policy, can best be understood as a reflection of the self-conscious
attitudes of leaders and policymakers to place concerns for the health and
well-being of the population ahead of other pressing political concerns,
such as the generation of state revenue.