I would still recommend Sinclair, certainly over Behr. Sinclair may not
have used many manuscript sources but he did rely on contemporary material
- the vast amount that was published about Prohibition at the time it was
in force. I am not sure how much of this Behr read for his book. And his
writing lacks Sinclair's literacy and style. Maybe I am being prejudiced.
As Kerr says, Sinclair is out of date in ignoring the relationship between
Prohibition and progressivism, but I do not know whether he was regarded as
backward in his time: important books such as Timberlake's "Prohibition and
the Progressive Movement" postdate him, I believe. I am sure that Kerr is
right that British scholars fail to appreciate the part played by
progressivism and the desire for national self-improvement in American
history; the notion is certainly dealt with in my forthcoming (March)
"Drink: a social history of America" but whether I have given it sufficient
weight will be for others to say. It appears evident to me that Britain is
a more suspicious and pessimisitic society, and America a more credulous
and optimistic one. Maybe each fails to appreciate this aspect of the
other. What I do not know, and might be worthy of invesigation, is the
extent of self-awareness of each society about this characteristic and the
part that it has played in its history and its relationship with the other.
Does anyone know of anything that has been written on this subject?