Sorry to send this twice, but I realised it did not have my name attached! Andrew Barr. Two of the books I enjoyed most when researching "Drink: a social history of America" (Carroll and Graf, New York, 1999) were W.J.Rorabaugh, "The Alcoholic Republic" (OUP, paperback, New York, 1981, probably out of print but I bet they have plenty of old copies lying around) and J.C.Burnham, "Bad Habits" (NYUP, paperback, New York, 1993), who both approached the role of drink in American history from an unusual perspective. I have tried to do the same in my book, which offers a transatlantic view. There does not exist, so far as I am aware, any satisfactory general history of alcohol. Having followed a history of drink in Britain ("Drink: a social history," Pimlico, paperback, London, 1998) with one of America, I have thought of trying, but it is such a large subject requiring such a combination of disciplines. A task for one of today's students, perhaps.