I second Ian Tyrrell's emphasis on the problems of writing
comparative or international history.  In writing _Temperance &
Racism_, my Good Templar book, I frequently worried about my grasp of
context.
 
Joseph R. Gusfield's review (Contemporary Sociology, July 1997)
reminds me about another organization that could be studied across
national boundaries: Klaus Makela and others, Alcoholics Anonymous as
a Mutual-Help Movement: A Study in Eight Societies (Univ. of
Wisconsin Press, 1996).  By the way, Gusfield was disappointed in
this book on A.A.
 
There are many other approaches possible in addition to studying an
international organization.  For instance, what was the impact of
national prohibition in the United States upon the temperance
movements in other countries (where temperance often was in retreat
after the First World War)?  Another possibility: a comparison of the
role of religion in temperance movements in different countries.