I can't see the importance of a single year except to dramatize  
something larger than that year.  The lapse between the completion of  
a book manuscript and its publication can be short or long, so it is  
an accident whether it appears in 1978 or 1979 or 1980.  The bigger  
problem is that alcohol (and drugs) historical studies overlap with  
diverse fields and approaches that have their own trends: for  
instance, pressure group politics, social control, evangelical  
Protestantism, women's history, studies of masculinity, business  
history, urban history, working class history, and so forth, and for  
the history of different countries and internationally.  There is  
also the contrast between academic and popular history.  At the  
moment I am writing what may best be described as a review essay on  
old-time breweries and saloons, with emphasis on my adopted state of  
Ohio.  In doing so, I have blundered into an alternative "breweriana"  
universe with its own organizations publishing their own journals and  
holding their own conferences.  For these non-academic collectors, at  
least in the USA,  the years 1970-1980 seem crucial.  Bet that few of  
you have encountered an organization called (for good reason) Just  
for Openers.

David Fahey

On Aug 28, 2006, at 1:47 PM, Courtwright, David wrote:

> Ron,
>
> OK, so why was 1979 a banner year? Coincidence? The fruits of the  
> golden age of sociology and social history? Or maybe something to  
> do with a long, steady rise in per capital alcohol consumption that  
> (if my memory serves) didn't level off until sometime in the early  
> 1980s?
>
> I'm teaching a historiography seminar this semester and I have  
> questions like this on the brain.
>
> David T. Courtwright
> John A. Delaney Presidential Professor
> Dept. of History
> University of North Florida
> Jacksonville, FL 32224-2645
> Home office: (904) 745 0530
> University office: (904) 620-1872
> Fax: (904) 620-1018
> Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society on behalf of Jack Blocker
> Sent: Mon 8/28/2006 9:51 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 1979
>
>
> Of course 1979 was also the year the Alcohol and Temperance History  
> Group was founded, at the annual meeting of the AHA, in New York.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ron Roizen <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, August 28, 2006 9:30 am
> Subject: 1979
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>> 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
>> importantcontributions 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
>> contributionsthat 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)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Jack Blocker
> History, Huron University College
> The University of Western Ontario
> 1349 Western Road
> London, Ontario N6G 1H3 Canada
> Phone (519) 438-7224, ext. 249
> Fax (519) 438-3938