Regarding Dan Malleck's query regarding student responses to history of
alcohol courses: I'm offering one at Carleton University in January 2000,
a one semester (12-week) survey of alcohol in western societies from the
Middle Ages to the present.

While I clearly can't say anything yet about students' expectations, I
can say that they are very keen on the course.  This is for senior
undergraduates (third year of a four-year B.A.) and History courses at
that level normally attract about 30 students.  To date the history of
alcohol course has a registration of 110.  Courses starting in January
generally pick up a lot of students in December, and I expect the
alcohol course will easily reach its limit (set by the size of the lecture
room) of 123 students.  Only the burden of marking essays and exams
deters me from getting a larger lecture hall.

I should say, to put things in perspective, that I had the same experience
with a course (same level, same length) that I'm curently teaching this Fall.
It's on the social history of sexuality and enrolment quickly reached
the maximum 123.  I had other students phoning to ask to be allowed to
registe, but I had to turn them down.  Startlingly, four weeks into
this course there have been no withdrawals (pardon any pun detected here).

My sense is that students will rally to such courses (alcohol, sexuality)
on the history of everyday life/behavior because they offer
something different from the courses generally offered.  That's not a bad
thing, I hasten to add, and it can only be positive for this field.

Rod Phillips
History, Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
(613) 520-2600 ext 2824
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