Jared makes a good point, but I am optimistic.  For me the more serious
tension (in the ATHG and now the ADHS) is between two different approaches:
on the one hand, the medical/legal/political response to pathological
addictions and, on the other hand, the history of foods and leisure history
that emphasize the normality and acceptability of alcohol and other
drugs.  I hope that the two approaches can educate one another.

"Social history" is part of both the old and the new name for the
journal.  A case can be made that a good deal of the history of alcohol and
other drugs is not social history, but something else: political history,
business history, medical history, cultural history, the history of
technology, etc.  This doesn't worry me.  The term social history merely
indicates the core focus of the journal and does not limit its contents.

Finally, I have no doubt that there is room for journals more specialized
than that to be published by ADHS and gladly welcome them.

At 04:13 PM 8/20/2004, you wrote:
>Yes, I dare say, provided -- and this was and is my principal point -- the
>"alcohol and temperance history" doesn't get swallowed up in the history
>of tobacco, coffee, marijuana, hashish, qat, coca and coca derivatives,
>betel nuts, opium and opium derivatives, not to mention designer drugs,
>pills, usw.-- for however many hundreds of relevant substances there
>are.  I suspect there may still be a niche for a journal specifically on
>alcohol and (alcohol) temperance history, and if anyone agrees and is
>interested in something of that sort, on a (necessarily) minor scale, I
>should be interested in being in touch with them -- Jared Lobdell.
>-------------- Original message --------------
>
> > Since the conflation of alcohol and other drugs has long
> > characterized temperance culture, it makes sense, I think, for a
> > society devoted to temperance history to also welcome historians of
> > tobacco, coffee, and other drugs.
> >
> > Jon