Dear Ron:

Two 1979 books that should not be overlooked are Larry Engleman,
Intemperance: The Lost War Against Liquor and Elliott West, The Saloon
on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier.

I suspect that all of us who published in 1979 came at booze history
from different directions and published then for different reasons, not
the least of which was the uneven pace of our scholarly work.  I, for
instance, moved ahead more slowly than some of my colleagues.  I took up
my topic in 1967 as someone not so interested in liquor as in liberal
political and social reform.  I came to my topic because I was curious
about what happened when reform efforts went sour.  Once my dissertation
was accepted in late 1970 I still had to pry open a vital manuscript
collection that remained in private hands.  That took some time, though
it proved well worth the effort.  It took me considerably longer to
rethink and polish the dissertation in light of the new material.  I
would have been even slower to get my work into print had it not been
for the industry of a terrific editor, Doug Mitchell, at the University
of Chicago Press and two wonderful reviewers for the press, David Burner
and Norman Clark, who dealt very quickly and generously with my
manuscript.  All were aware of and involved in the rising tide of
alcohol-related scholarship and prepared to act promptly in support of
additional efforts in the field.  Burner and Clark gave me a lesson
regarding how in booze history, as in other fields, we depend on those
who come before us.  As it turned out, my book did not roll off the
press until mid-December 1979, making me very lucky to be included in
your annus mirabilis list by the narrowest of margins.  

David Kyvig
Distinguished Research Professor
Northern Illinois University

 >>> [log in to unmask] 08/27/06 10:03 PM >>>
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 important
contributions 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 contributions
that 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)