The View from a Mile High City

Last week I had the good fortune to travel to Denver, Colorado to take part in a conference on university honors programs.  It was a great time to be out in Denver, I met colleagues from around the country, got to tour the city, and came home with all sorts of new ideas for the honors program at Butler University.

Part of my time was spent taking part in a City-As-Text exercise.  My group traveled to the Colorado State Capitol building as well as Molly Brown's house (she of unsinkable/Titanic fame).  It was a wonderful time, with some breathtaking views.  The steps up to the statehouse itself have been confirmed via GPS to be a mile above sea level -- and if you take the tour, your view can get even better, via the observation deck that is around the golden dome.

In what little down time I had, I did some further exploration of the city, witnessing Denver as a city proud of its past in many ways, excited about its future, and grappling with issues caused by growth, tourism, and homelessness (the climate, both environmental--generally temperate with 300 days of sunshine--and political contribute to all three).  I even managed to get a little writing and revising done on my next book.

As an author, I know all to well what it means to grapple with a text.  But the rewards (and most often they aren't monetary) are worth it.  I have been thinking about that quite a bit as my third book (Interpreting the Prohibition Era at Museums and Historic Sites) is due to come out this month.  As I relate in the book, at one point I never thought I would return to the world of wets and drys (which was, after all, the topic of my first book).  But with this new book, I got to engage that material in new ways, and found if not new understanding, at least new ways to view the Prohibition Era.  You don't always have to look at things from the mountain top perch, but some times doing so helps you appreciate the view.

The Gift of Blurb

As readers of this blog already know, my third book is set to be released in November.  Published by Rowman & Littlefield, with the support of AASLH, the book is part of the new Interpreting History series, which looks at historical events and how Museums and Historical Societies have and can discuss them.  Back in the summer of 2012 I was contacted about the possibility of writing the book on Prohibition, an opportunity that I accepted.  Getting to return to the world of wets and drys was a fun intellectual experience, and getting to investigate how institutions (both large and small) have attempted to discuss and convey "the noble experiment" to visitors was a good deal of fun as well.

I was pleased to discover earlier today that the back cover review blurb has been uploaded to the book's website.  I am equally pleased to share it with you all now:


"Interpreting the Prohibition Era at Museums and Historic Sites is exactly the kind of book that busy interpreters, curators, and museum administrators need. Well-researched and lucidly written, it combines a brief history of prohibition with incisive guidelines for interpretation. Lantzer offers an informative account of the long war between “wets” and “drys” in slightly less than fifty pages. His guidelines demonstrate the enduring relevance of prohibition while offering suggestions for telling meaningful, engaging stories about it. Interpreting the Prohibition Era is sure to become a standard resource for public historians and museum professionals. In fact, by reminding us that prohibition left no part of the nation untouched, the book shows why its story deserves to be told – and how sites large and small can incorporate it into their programming."— Daniel Vivian, Assistant Professor of History and Director of Public History Program, University of Louisville

 I am thankful to my editors at Rowman & Littlefield, the members of the AASLH for entrusting the volume to me, and Dr. Vivian for the very kind review.  I hope the eventual readers also find it "well-researched and lucidly written" as well.


UPDATE:   There is now a second back blurb review up (thank you to Eloise Batic, who was so helpful with the entire project):

"Interpreting the Prohibition Era at Museums and Historic Sites is a must-read for any museum professional seeking to uncover the Prohibition era in a museum gallery or program setting. Tapping into public interest by celebrating objects and stories from the local perspective is a wonderful opportunity for museums, but this book will help program developers understand the context in which their story sits. Taking the local story and asking the variety of contextual questions posed in this book will help museums explore the widest possible angle of history and spark countless new interests on the part of visitors."
— Eloise Batic, Director of Exhibitions Research and Development, Indiana Historical Society