anyone interested in pursuing ian tyrrell's suggestion for further research
on the wctu's role in drug policy might have a look at:  jim baumohl,
"maintaining orthodoxy: the depression-era struggle over morphine
maintenance in california."  this will appear in CONTEMPORARY DRUG PROBLEMS
late this year (i think), and in caroline acker and sarah tracy's
forthcoming book, ALCOHOL AND DRUGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY.   a subsequent
piece will take up the federal bureau of narcotics' role in deterring the
maintenance movement in the state of washington during the same period.
this article pays close attention to the activities of elizabeth bass (ca.
1865-1950), a doyenne of the democratic party who was fbn chief harry
anslinger's principal political operative and his link to the old
home-protection constituency, including the wctu.  jb



At 03:13 PM 7/10/00 +1000, you wrote:
>It is not clear that interest in the WCTU has diminished; several recent
>books have touched on aspects of the WCTU and these are outlined already by
>others who have responded to this query. See especially  Catherine
>Murdock's related work, which  focuses on the important topic of women and
>drinking; also  J.  Zimmerman, Distilling Democracy, and the Carol
>Mattingly book.  (I have a combined review of these books in the June issue
>of the Journal of American history).
>
>The WCTU is certainly not neglected in American historiography; Rather, it
>has been one of the most heavily researched topics, either in direct
>studies, or in other studies in which the WCTU has been an  important
>component.
>
>If there were a neglect, it might reflect the trendy themes which Austin
>Kerr alludes to. But in all honesty, there is none.
>
>At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, no one has mentioned  my  Woman's
>World/Women's Empire,  published  in 1991, a study that focuses  on the
>WCTU's global work; there I combine analysis of gender, imperialism and the
>development of temperance internationalism. And despite the almost
>uniformly excellent reviews that book received, it does not normally get
>considered by Americanists as a study in the US WCTU. This reflects the
>usual blinkers in American historiography that the "national" stops at the
>US borders and something on world history couldn't possibly be relevant to
>US history though it is of American origin.  Luckily, many in ATHG are in
>comparative fields, or in other areas of social science and range well
>beyond the national boundaries, but within American historiography, the
>resistance to wider conceptions of the "American" is still quite strong and
>is reflected in the way the WCTU is treated. On the other hand, diplomatic
>and foreign policy historians don't use my book much either, because it's
>not diplomatic history conventionally considered.
>
>I have done the short entry on the National WCTU for the forthcoming Oxford
>Companion to American history, but what can you say in 500 words about
>something so important?
>
>For graduate student or others looking for interesting WCTU related topics
>look at tobacco, and/or narcotics.  Each of these topics (they could be
>done together) has transnational potential.
>
>
>Ian Tyrrell