Dear All,

As one of the interlopers from 'drugs history' I thought it worth briefly
addressing Jared's concerns.  I think that the engagement of the history of
drugs with the history of alcohol is an important one, not least of all so
that we can discover for sure whether any of the boundaries between the two
that Jared is so concerned to preserve are in fact important or
justified.  In other words, I am sure that while there is a impulse to
identify ways in which the subject areas 'cross-fertilise' , there is
similarly an interest in the ways in which they do not.

Indeed, I also think it worth pointing out that there are obvious merits
and outcomes from making the ADHG a broad church.  I would find it silly to
ignore alcohol issues in my own work on cannabis in the UK as it was
temperance campaigners who had cut their teeth on alcohol campaigns that
pursued cannabis at various times in Parliament in the nineteenth
century.  However, it would probably be unnecessary for someone studying
alcohol use in thirteenth century Scotland to worry much about the use of
cannabis/opium etc as they were virtually unknown, let alone available.  I
am sure that the ADHG community will be big enough to allow us all to keep
company that we find immediately interesting, while allowing us to eye the
whole range of perspectives on alchol and drugs from across societies and
periods.

cheers,

Jim.
__________________________________________________
Dr James Mills
ESRC Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer
Department of History
University of Strathclyde
16 Richmond St
Glasgow G1 1XQ
0141 548 2206
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http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/History/mills.htm