Dear Lisa,

I have worked with a range of 19th century temperance periodicals that were
published in Scotland.  These journals, such as the League Journal or the
Scottish Women's Temperance News, were published and edited by organisations
within Scotland - in this instance the Scottish Temperance League and the
British Women's Temperance Association Scottish Christian Union,
respectively.  While these journals claimed a Scottish 'national'
circulation, I am unsure of their wider dissemination.  However, I would be
surprised if they did not circulate in a wider British national context, at
least among reformers in 'North Britain' and interested Scots living in
England and conceivably in the white settler colonies.

These journals - in addition to news related to the organisation publishing
the periodical - included local, Scottish and British 'national' temperance
news as well as reports on the movement in Empire, the English-speaking
world and Europe more generally.  I believe that this reflects the
international flavour of the movement and highlights the cosmopolitan
worldview of reformers who may have spent much of their time in the local
sphere.  These reports can be found attributed to other sources, but not
always.  Moreover, I have found references to reformers in Scotland posting
their journals to reformers in the US (e.g. female reformers sending the
Scottish Women's Temperance News to Eliza 'Mother' Stewart in Ohio).  So,
there was a degree of informal exchange of literature among the
international networks that characterised the temperance movement, a notion
that may further complicate any designation of 'national' versus 'local'
distribution in the British case.  Indeed, I suspect that there are
important differences between the US and Britain in terms periodical
distribution, due not least of all to geography.

I hope that this helps.  If you have further questions please feel free to
email me at [log in to unmask]

Best,
Meg Smitley

-----Original Message-----
From: Alcohol and Temperance History Group
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Sent: 17 August 2004 05:06
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Subject: ATHG Digest - 9 Aug 2004 to 16 Aug 2004 (#2004-80)

Hello ATHG,

There were quite a few Temperance periodicals in the 19th century in America
and Great Britain, but I'm sure many of them were mainly distributed
locally. Do you know which periodicals were distributed nationally? I would
appreciate any information you could provide.

Sincerely,

Lisa Hinton



Dr Megan Smitley
ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellow

[log in to unmask]
www.megansmitley.org

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