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Author of book on clean living movements sees changes in views on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and chastity
March 9, 2000
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The cyclical nature of reform movements affecting such issues as alcohol and smoking is explored in a recently published book by Ruth Engs, professor of applied health science at Indiana University.
Clean Living Movements: American Cycles of Health Reform (Praeger Press), written for the interested public as well as for teachers and researchers, looks ahead to significant changes in societal views on such issues as liquor, tobacco, marijuana and chastity.
This is Engs' fifth book on addictive behaviors, and it addresses the "clean living" movements in this country in three time periods: 1830-1860, 1880-1920 and 1970-2005.
In sections on the first two time periods, topics such as religion, tobacco, women's rights, sexuality, public health, alcohol and birth control are discussed. Chapters on the current era deal with religion and wellness; drunk driving, smoking and drugs; the women's liberation movement, neo-purity and AIDS; and fitness, health and the new eugenics.
"About every 80 years these movements emerge with, or alongside of, a religious awakening. 'Out groups' such as immigrants and/or youth are seen to exhibit behaviors that undermine society. But after the dissipation of the activism phase, laws made during the reform era often become ignored or replaced," said Engs, an expert on addictive behaviors, alcohol and drug use, who is a faculty member of the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
Looking to the future, Engs' book offers "speculative guesses" on these issues before a fourth clean living movement begins around 2040.
"Concerns about diet and exercise will continue to wane and will be of little interest to today's youth as they age," she writes. "This, in turn, will result in an upturn of chronic diseases before 2020. By 2010, the legal purchase age for alcohol will be lowered in certain circumstances, and marijuana will increasingly be allowed for medical purposes and will be legal for sale in some states for recreational use. By 2020, tobacco use, in some form, will again become fashionable. The neo-purity movement will continue to surge and reach a peak about 2015, youthful chastity will be an accepted norm among the middle class, and increasing numbers of middle-class women will work out of their homes in order to care for their children. Some of the New Age religions will become mainstream by 2030."
For more information, visit Engs' Web site at http://www.indiana.edu/~engs
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)