David,

I had the same thought, but I'm reluctant to put too much weight on the
peaking in U.S. alcohol consumption.  Consumption did peak in '79-'80 after
a long post-War and post-Repeal period of growth.  A "neo-temperance"
popular wave (please don't make me define that) did seem to sweep across the
nation in the mid-1980s, but that's a bit too late to account for the
co-occurrence of Rorabaugh, Kurtz, Tyrrell, Kyvig, and Blocker in '79,
though they may have been precursors somehow.  I'm more inclined to go back
to something Bill Rorabough wrote in his SHAR piece about writing his
dissertation.  Bill wrote -- as I recall from memory, and I may be
embellishing to make my point -- that even in a time when "social history"
was already au currant in U.S. history departments, nevertheless writing a
serious dissertation on the history of alcohol was still regarded by more
than a few as pushing the envelope.  In other words, the flood of new and
interesting work in '79 may have been the result of a kind of cohort effect
deriving from the expanding borders of the "social history" movement in
historiography.

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Courtwright, David
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 10:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 1979

Ron,
 
OK, so why was 1979 a banner year? Coincidence? The fruits of the golden age
of sociology and social history? Or maybe something to do with a long,
steady rise in per capital alcohol consumption that (if my memory serves)
didn't level off until sometime in the early 1980s?
 
I'm teaching a historiography seminar this semester and I have questions
like this on the brain.
 
David T. Courtwright
John A. Delaney Presidential Professor
Dept. of History
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, FL 32224-2645
Home office: (904) 745 0530
University office: (904) 620-1872
Fax: (904) 620-1018
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 

________________________________

From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society on behalf of Jack Blocker
Sent: Mon 8/28/2006 9:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 1979


Of course 1979 was also the year the Alcohol and Temperance History Group
was founded, at the annual meeting of the AHA, in New York.


----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Roizen <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, August 28, 2006 9:30 am
Subject: 1979
To: [log in to unmask]

> Listmates, and particularly those who've been in the field for a 
> spell:
>  
> 
> Listmates:
> 
>  
> 
> A few years ago it got into my head that 1979 was a something of 
> a banner
> year for alcohol history and alcohol social studies 
> publications, an annus
> mirabilis.  I set upon compiling a list of 1979's various 
> importantcontributions to the literature.  The list got to 
> be pretty long and pretty
> impressive.  But then I stopped adding to it; and worse, 
> the list got lost
> two or three expired computers ago.  I'd like to try to 
> recreate the list,
> this time a little more efficiently.  So I'd like to ask 
> the list to help me
> recompile it.  I'm offering five items of would-be "chum" 
> for the list
> below, just to maybe get things started.  Please send only 
> contributionsthat you regard as significant work, published in 
> 1979 only.
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you.
> 
>  
> 
> Ron Roizen
> 
>  
> 
> 1979 List:
> 
>  
> 
> Tyrrell, Sobering-up (1979)
> 
> Kurtz, Not-God (1979)
> 
> Rorabaugh, Alcoholic Republic (1979)
> 
> Blocker, Alcohol, Reform and Society (1979)
> 
> Kyvig, David E., Repealing National Prohibition (1979) 
> 
>  
> 
> 


Jack Blocker 
History, Huron University College 
The University of Western Ontario 
1349 Western Road 
London, Ontario N6G 1H3 Canada 
Phone (519) 438-7224, ext. 249 
Fax (519) 438-3938