The 5th International Conference on the History of Drugs and Alcohol: The Pathways to Prohibition

The 5th International Conference on the History of Drugs and Alcohol: The Pathways to Prohibition,

26-28th June 2009, CSHHH, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland

When John Shanks acquired the Barrhead pottery company to establish his “sanitary engineering workshop” in the late nineteenth century, the decision was more than a simple business one. The man who was to become the President of the Barrhead Evangelist Association chose the town, which bordered Glasgow, as it had the reputation of having the highest number of pubs per head of population. Workers had to sign the temperance pledge to ensure employment. Shanks was following in the footsteps of temperance campaigner Sir William Collins, Glasgow book publisher and Lord Provost who earned the nickname “Water Willie”. In Britain, however, the impact of such campaigners remained local, and only those who adopted the global/colonial platform against intoxicants met with success. Such limited influence paved the ground for the British anti-intoxicant policy of the twentieth century which rejected prohibition for the medical solution, ultimately another localised response to local problems. The conference is seeking papers on the broad subject of the ‘pathways to prohibition’, the underlying motives governing policy and reactions to policymaking across the globe. Proposed papers or panels can be on any topic in the history of drugs and alcohol, but some issues to be considered include the ways in which the cultures of consumption evolved to meet the challenge of prohibition; the impact upon previously good citizens, including distillers and brewers, whose activities were now criminalised; the changing images of consumption under prohibition policies; the construction of consumption which underlay decisions to instigate prohibition or reject it; the effectiveness of the merging of local initiatives with national and international politics of prohibition.

Abstracts of proposed papers (no more than 500 words long) or of proposed panels should be sent by email, fax or post by November 15th 2008 to Dr Patricia Barton CSHHH Dept of History University of Strathclyde 16 Richmond Street Glasgow G1 1XQ Scotland E: [email protected] Tel: 44 (0)141 548 2932/ Fax: 44 (0)141 552 8509