It seems to me that David Fahey mapped out two very relevant themes for an
international comparative temperance history conference. I did some research
about these two questions, the American prohibition impact and the role of
religion, for the Netherlands, and would love to compare results with other
countries. I like to add a third subject: the role that women could play in
temperance organizations in various countries. The brilliant suggestion of
David Levine of temperance and non-temperance cultures could provide a very
useful framework.
Does anyone feel called to organize such a conference? Or have such meetings
already taken place? Have the papers presented at the 1997 AHA convention on
'Prohibition in Cross-Cultural Perspective' been published?
 
Hans Krabbendam
Roosevelt Study Center
Middelburg, the Netherlands
 
 
At 14:33 15-1-98 -0500, you wrote:
>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.
>
>