"Lady Lushes is an impressive and major contribution to women's studies and the history of medicine in the United States."
~David M. Fahey, author of Alcohol and Drugs in North America: A Historical Encyclopedia
"From 'fallen angels' to 'lit ladies,' the drinking women who haunt these pages embody the ambivalence of alcohol. McClellan traces the fluctuations in American expectations, taking pharmacology seriously but situating it squarely within gendered social constraints."
~Nancy D. Campbell, author of Using Women: Gender, Drug Policy and Social Justice
"Lady Lushes provides an important supplement to the established historical insight that affluent white women tend to elicit sympathy while other groups of substance users are vilified. As McClellan deftly demonstrates, although the inebriety paradigm for female alcoholism evoked more sympathetic attitudes than the medical paradigm, neither produced a cure that benefited women."
~Bulletin of the History of Medicine
"Lady Lushes provides an important supplement to the established historical insight that affluent white women tend to elicit sympathy while other groups of substance users are vilified. As McClellan deftly demonstrates, although the inebriety paradigm for female alcoholism evoked more sympathetic attitudes than the medical paradigm, neither produced a cure that benefited women."
~Bulletin of the History of Medicine
"[McClellan's] book provides a model analysis for students of the history of identity politics; as such, it could also find a place on intermediate or advanced social history courses. Feminism transformed the ‘therapeutic industrial complex’ after the 1970s, diversifying understandings of addictive experience and including behavioral as well as substance addictions, yet women’s health continues to be under-researched and often under-treated; therefore, intermediate courses on American medicine and society would benefit from inclusion of this work."
~Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
"Lady Lushes is a welcome contribution to the social history of medicine and health, as well as to the growing field of drinking studies....This is a ground-breaking study that draws on a range of sources, including historical periodicals, medical journals, letters, self-help guides and institutional records."
~Social History of Medicine
