After ATHG subscribers get a chance to read The Changing Face of Drink they may
care to discuss the concluding essay by Ian Tyrrell, "Tasks and Achievements of
Alcohol and Temperance Historiography."  The abstract reads as follows:  "For
too long the literature in the history of alcohol has been dominated by
American issues arising primarily from the history of prohibition.  While
impressive monographs on many aspects of the social history of alcohol for a
number of key countries have appeared, the new work remains too narrow and
unintegrated.  Methodologically the history of the alcohol question is best
studied comparatively and internationally--that is, both between nations and
across national units in what the author refers to as 'transnational history'.
Such an approach would not supersede conventional comparisons between
national experiences, but provide a new and richer context for their
interpretation."