As Laura Schmidt wrote, Sidsel Eriksen's comparison of Swedish and
Danish temperance is very strong and evocative work -- in her telling, it
is the Swedes' orientation to Anglo-American traditions of protestantism
and the Danes' to German that makes the difference in the success of
temperance in the two societies. She has also done work on the
intertwining of temperance with Danish migration to the U.S.  Her
address is Westend 6.st.th.,  DK-1661 Kobenhavn V, Denmark, fax +45
32 964406.  The reference for the Harry Levine paper referenced by
Laura is: Temperance cultures: concern about alcohol problems in Nordic
and English-speaking cultures, pp. 15-36 in M. Lader et al., eds., The
Nature of Alcohol and Drug Related Problems, Oxford University Press,
1992.
 
   Other places where American influence is discussed:
     Ann Pinson, Temperance, prohibition and politics in nineteenth-century
Iceland, Contemporary Drug Problems 12:249-266, 1985.
     Ian Tyrrell, Women's World, Women's Empire: The WCTU in
International perspective, 1880-1930, Chapel Hill: U. North Carolina Press.
     Ian Tyrrell, Prohibition, American cultural expansion, and the new
hegemony in the 1920s: an interpretation, Histoire Sociale/Social History
27:413-445, 1994.
 
   The U.S. was very important as a source of influence in the inebriates
home/asylum movements of the late 19th century, although for the
Netherlands there was also influence just before WWI from the
Trinkfuersorgestelle movement from Germany.  See James Baumohl &
Robin Room, Inebriety, doctors, and the state: alcoholism treatment
institutions before 1940, pp. 135-174 in Marc Galanter, ed., Recent
Developments in Alcoholism, vol. 5.  New York: Plenum, 1987.
 
   In turn, I would be interested in knowing what is available in English on
Dutch temperance history more detailed or later than Jan de Lint,
"Anti-drink propaganda and alcohol control measures: a report on the
Dutch experience", pp. 87- 102 in Eric Single et al., eds., Alcohol,
Society, and the State: 2. The Social History of Control Policy in Seven
Countries, Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation, 1981.  From data up
to 1980, the Netherlands seems to come closest to being a case example
of a culture shifting from a "dry" or "temperance" culture to a "wet"
culture, with harm from drinking rising less fast than consumption levels
-- see Robin Room, The impossible dream? Routes to reducing alcohol
problems in a temperance culture, Journal of Substance Abuse 4:91-106,
1992.
 
   At a broader level, the puzzle for an outsider is how a society with a
strong Calvinist tradition and a very strong popular temperance tradition
could become the tolerant Netherlands of today, particularly regarding
drugs -- the homeland of pragmatic harm reduction policies.  On the issue
of U.S. influence, my impression is that in the international drug policy
arena the Netherlands rather enjoys tweaking the nose of the American
hegemony, and is more noted for this than any other country.  How did
the Netherlands get from there to here?