Last night, I had the honor of speaking in Terre Haute, Indiana to speak to the Wabash Valley Genealogy Society (you can visit their website here). My topic was Prohibition in Indiana and despite the weather (storms moved through during my talk and all the way home), there was a great turnout and lively discussion. It was a wonderful event and I am thankful I got to share with them a bit about my own research on the noble crusade.
It is perhaps fitting that I spoke in Terre Haute when I did. Looking back, my professional career started there (I had to travel to take the GRE at Indiana State University my senior year of college). And so, in talking about Prohibition, which was the focus of my dissertation-turned-first book, I got to bring it back full circle. As an added bonus, in Prohibition is here to Stay, Terre Haute graces the pages several times--both because of the breweries and saloon-based political corruption there, but also because the Reverend Edward S. Shumaker was a pastor for a time there in his early ministry (before he made prohibition his reform). But it was also fitting because a month from now, my third book Interpreting the Prohibition Era will be published by Rowman & Littlefield. As that date gets closer, I grow more excited by the fact that I was given the opportunity to "go back" to the time of wets and drys and think about Prohibition yet again and in new ways.
Not every historian or academic gets that kind of opportunity. And while my current research has taken me far from saloons and churches (in some respects), who knows, maybe I'll come back to it again. After all, as I was reminded last night, there are still many stories waiting to be told in places both near and far away!
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