I am not a member of the listserv but my advisor kindly forwarded the
threads of the discussion to me.  I have done work on the second generation
WCTU (post-Willard era) and will continue to follow the organization.  That
research has allowed me to flesh out a portrait of the more conservative
(more traditional?) women reformers like those who were in the WCTU. They
are a distinct and important type of feminine figure, driven by extremely
conservative ideas of home and family yet committed to using law and
politics as the main force for action.  I have then used the WCTU as a
springboard for examining the larger question of how this middle class
women's maternalist political legacy affected public policy development well
into the 1930s, 1940s, and beyond.  Part of my dissertation deals with how
maternalist ideas very close to the WCTU tradition dictated much of the form
that state liquor regulation took post repeal.  Perhaps it is better to
think about how the ideas survived the heyday of the organization and which
of them became part of the mainstream political discourse (for a number
did).  I definitely think contemporary interest in the WCTU as a reform
organization can be an important part of policy and political history.

Laurie Kozakiewicz
University at Albany, SUNY

> ----------
> From:         David Fahey[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Alcohol and Temperance History Group
> Sent:         Tuesday, July 04, 2000 1:23 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      WCTU in USA
>
> Back in early/mid-1980s several academic books were published about the
> WCTU in the USA.  Since then I think there haven't been any.  Two
> questions: (1) do I have my facts right? (2) why the decline of interest
> by
> historians in the WCTU in the USA (at least as measured by book
> publication)?
>
>
> David M. Fahey, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio <[log in to unmask]>
>
>