I am a Danish Research Fellow at the Department of History in Copenhagen. I have been interested in the alcohol and temperance questions from various angles for a long time. It has fascinated me to compare different national alcohol cultures especially between the Scandinavian countries. Denmark has a very liberal alcohol culture whereas Sweden and especial- ly Norway has much more restricted alcohol cultures. The Scandinavian countries are very much alike in politics and social structure, and therefore these differences offers a great opportunity to isolate which factores (i.e. religion) influenced the creation of the cultural differences and how did these differences influence other factors in society i.e. the results of medical research? One could also ask wether these differences in alcohol culture is visible among Scandinavian imigrants in the US? I look forward to interesting comments. /Sidsel