> (1) do I have my facts right? David, I think you have your facts correct. >(2) why the decline of interest by >historians in the WCTU in the USA (at least as measured by book publication)? This question is interesting. The answer probably has as much to do with the state of history-writing in the United States as anything else. The answer may be because the WCTU women were not "subaltern" and the fashion came to be, by the 1980s, only to write about the oppressed. In my work, I had an occasion to review a syllabus in American women's history about 5 years ago. From that syllabus, the students would not know that an upper or middle class woman of European ancestry ever set foot on the soil of North America! When I inquired, I was told, "oh, that is not where the field is at nowadays" or words to that effect! Scholars my not be much interested in the WCTU because of the composition of its membership. I think there is a lot of ignorance about the WCTU, especially its history after the death of Frances Willard when, contrary to what I have seen in print, the organization actually grew. K. Austin Kerr e-mail [log in to unmask] Professor of History office (614)292-2613 Ohio State University department 292-2674 Columbus, Ohio 43210 USA fax (614)292-2282