From Rod Phillips, Carleton University, Ottawa
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I have decided to use the Blocker & Warsh collection for my course
starting in January, but I anticipate having better luck because it
is published in Ottawa, where I am located.  The volume was published
by a journal, Histoire sociale/Social History, that is based at the
University of Ottawa. I suspect that it is the lack of familiarity
of the journal's office in dealing with large and/or international
orders that is the problem.

There might be more extensive problems, though:  book bears the
copyright date  of 1977, although many of the articles were first
published in a 1994 issue of the journal, and the collection appeared,
I think, this year.

There might also have been delays at the border, which, for all that
it is vaunted as the world's longest,unguarded frontier, can be a
formidable obstacle for printed matter travelling in either direction.
I think customs officers have taken some of my books home to read or
lend to their neighbours before approving them for entry to Canada.

Whatever the reason, it's too bad that Geoffrey Giles's experience
has put him off the collection, because the essays are very
good for teaching purposes.  Even so, I quite understand how
frustrating it is not to get the material on which you plan a course.

I will take advantage of my location to contact the journal to see
if I can get any clarification of what went wrong in this case.

Rod Phillips

>Geoffrey Giles:

.....

> I must pass on a warning about the book of essays that I have chosen as a
> substitute for Barrows and Room this semester, namely the Blocker/Warsh
> collection, "The Changing Face of Drink", published by Histoire
> Sociale/Social History.  I remember a discussion here a long while back
> about the difficulty of obtaining copies of it, but I assumed that
> everything had been cleared up by now.  Alas, that is not the case.   We are
> now in the ninth week of a sixteen-week semester, and my students and I are
> still waiting for the book, ordered in July!   The valiant efforts of my
> local bookstore to hurry things up have proven fruitless.   Their  phone
> call this week to the publisher got them nowhere, for example, because they
> were told that the person dealing with our order only works on Monday
> mornings!!   It is rumored that the books were shipped a couple of weeks
> ago, but no-one at the publishers knew for sure.  Since I had planned to
> assign almost weekly readings from this book, it has disrupted my plans for
> the course considerably.   Needless to say, I shall NEVER deal with this
> publisher again, and I can only recommend that you do not do so either.
>
> Geoffrey Giles
>
>
>
> Professor Geoffrey J. Giles
> Department of History, PO Box 117320
> University of Florida
> Gainesville FL 32611-7320
>
> Office phone: (352)-392-0271
> Home phone: (352)-375-3587
> Home fax: (352)-379-0935
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Home page: www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ggiles
>



Roderick Phillips
Editor, Journal of Family History/
Professor, Department of History
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Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6
Tel: (613) 520-2600 ext 2824; fax: (613) 520-2819
Email address: [log in to unmask]
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