Dear David,

        Since the early 1990s, I have taught, on and off at two different
institutions, a course on representations of drinking and alcoholism
in American literature and film.  I've kept the historical background
general and light, since these are English courses, and the stress
should be on literary/filmic texts.  Rorabaugh still works fine as an
overall history before modern times.  I would now substitute the
new book from UMass (title eludes me): a collection of fine recent
conference papers, with bibliography and general intro.  I also
make a point of undermining unreflective confidence in the "disease
model" by having student encounter Stanton Peele's DISEASING
OF AMERICA.  I am attaching a sample syllabus from the most
recent offering, in a brief but intense three-week summer session.
John W. Crowley



On 17 Oct 2004, at 8:38, David Fahey wrote:

> May I ask for help as I explore the possibility of teaching (for
> undergraduates) a course on alcohol and drugs in world history?
> Suggestions re paperbacks?  Suggestions for excerpts from books and
> articles?  If anybody has a related syllabus for similar or more
> focused courses, I would be grateful to see it.  To the best of my
> knowledge, the only broad survey is Courtwright's Forces of Habit
> which is available in paperback.  I have not read Escohotado's A Brief
> History of Drugs, also available in paperback. (Gina Hames is a
> writing a global history of alcohol, but presumably it won't be
> available for some time.)  At my university students have electronic
> access to the ABC-Clio encyclopedia on the modern history of alcohol
> and temperance. We also have what is called electronic reserve,
> password-protected postings of articles and no more than 10% of
> copyrighted books.