A Dry January Reading List

The practice of "Dry January", choosing to abstain from alcohol for the first month of the year,  originated in the UK in 2013 and has become increasingly popular, particularly since the onset of Covid-19. During the last three years, many people have turned to alcohol to cope with the emotional toll and stress of the pandemic - and subsequently realized their intake might need to be addressed or curtailed. Taking "dry" time out of the year (some practice "Sober October" as well) - to evaluate drinking habits is now a recurring and positive event for an increasing number of people annually. Reading up on alcohol and its history and influence is a great place to start. Hopkins Press journals publish a wide range of scholarship on the subject - from the history of the temperance movement, the efficacy of college alcohol awareness campaigns, the psychology of addiction, to alcohol's influence in and on literature - and more. The papers below have all been made freely available through the month of January. 


Volitional Necessity and Volitional Shift: A Key to Sobriety?
John Talmadge
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
Volume 11, Number 4, December 2004


Trade Liberalization and Its Impacts on Alcohol Policy
Ellen Gould and Noel Schacter
SAIS Review
Volume 22, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2002, pp. 119-139


African American Women, Prohibition, and the 1928 Presidential Election
Lisa G. Materson
Journal of Women's History
Volume 21, Number 1, Spring 2009, pp. 63-86


Alcohol Consumption, Alcohol-Related Problems, and Quality of Life Among College Students
James G. Murphy, Carmen K. Hoyme, Suzanne M. Colby, and Brian Borsari
Journal of College Student Development
Volume 47, Number 1, January/February 2006, pp. 110-121


Identification and Practice Patterns of Sobering Centers in the United States
Otis Warren, Shannon Smith-Bernardin, Katherine Jamieson, Nickolas Zaller, and Aisha Liferidge
Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
Volume 27, Number 4, November 2016, pp. 1843-1857


Temperance Friction
Eric Norton
Studies in the Novel
Volume 49, Number 2, Summer 2017, pp. 170-188


Surrender Versus Control: How Best Not to Drink
Mark D. Rego
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
Volume 13, Number 3, September 2006, pp. 223-226


Girl, Junior, Woman: Negotiating Childhood and Adolescence in the Female Temperance Press
Gemma Outen
Victorian Periodicals Review
Volume 52, Number 4, Winter 2019, pp. 749-764


"Physicians are not Bootleggers": The Short, Peculiar Life of the Medicinal Alcohol Movement
Jacob M. Appel
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Volume 82, Number 2, Summer 2008, pp. 355-386


"Hearts Uplifted and Minds Refreshed": The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Production of Pure Culture in the United States, 1880-1930
Alison M. Parker
Journal of Women's History
Volume 11, Number 2, Summer 1999, pp. 135-158


Dissolving Metaphors in Emily Dickinson's Poems About Drink
Jake Young
The Emily Dickinson Journal
Volume 28, Number 1, 2019, pp. 23-42


An Examination of College Students’ Receptiveness to Alcohol-Related Information and Advice
Matthew M. Leahy, Ernest N. Jouriles, and Scott T. Walters
Journal of College Student Development
Volume 54, Number 6, November/December 2013, pp. 649-653


“We Belt the World”: Dr. Leslie E. Keeley’s “Gold Cure” and the Medicalization of Addiction in 1890s London
Timothy A. Hickman
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Volume 95, Number 2, Summer 2021, pp. 198-226


American Protestant Moralism and the Secular Imagination: From Temperance to the Moral Majority
Susan F. Harding
Social Research: An International Quarterly
Volume 76, Number 4, Winter 2009, pp. 1277-1306


Ethical Guidelines for Genetic Research on Alcohol Addiction and Its Applications
Audrey R. Chapman, Adrian Carter, Jonathan M. Kaplan, Kylie Morphett, and Wayne Hall
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
Volume 28, Number 1, March 2018, pp. 1-22


Implementing the Chronic Care Model for Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorders in Primary Care
Katherine E. Watkins, Allison J. Ober, Karen Lamp, Mimi Lind, Allison Diamant, Karen Chan Osilla, Keith Heinzerling, Sarah B. Hunter, and Harold Alan Pincus
Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action
Volume 11, Issue 4, Winter 2017, pp. 397-407


“Keepin’ it 100”: Performing Recovery in Cleveland Public Theatre’s Y-Haven Project
Noe Montez
Theatre Topics
Volume 23, Number 1, March 2013, pp. 83-95