Guy Graybill blasts the liquor industry and its detrimental effects on society, covering topics past and present similar to T. S. Arthur's 19th-century classic Ten Nights in a Barroom. The book covers a broad sweep required to address today's great social challenge from the intemperate use of alcohol. This book takes a very fresh, modern approach, separating the drunken/alcoholic segment of America from the young non-drinkers and the exemplary drinkers, putting the intemperate drinkers in a smaller niche. Graybill argues society is ripe for condemnation and legislation.
Ultimately, Graybill's goal is to push for the deglamorization of alcohol and the effort to reduce the danger of that 17% of the American population who create the danger and mayhem. Each chapter slams a different aspect of the problem: The ever-present danger of drunken individuals, the negative effect of alcohol on every system of the body and on the unborn, the glamorization of alcohol where it is utterly inappropriate, and the legislators' disregard for every American's right to "domestic tranquillity."