THE WILLIAM J. RORABAUGH BOOK PRIZE
The Alcohol and Drug History Society Executive Committee is thrilled to announce the establishment of the William J. Rorabaugh Book Prize!
We warmly invite the ADHS membership, alongside Bill’s friends, colleagues and former students, to commemorate his life and work by donating to the Prize Fund.
PURPOSE
The Rorabaugh Book Prize commemorates the life of the late William (“Bill”) Rorabaugh (1945-2020), a pioneer in the social history of alcohol and a former president and tireless supporter of the Society. After earning his Ph.D. in history from Stanford University, Bill went on to publish The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1979)–a work so far ahead of its time that it is still used in college-level history courses today. As a member of the history department faculty of the University of Washington-Seattle, Bill made his mark on the field of U.S. history with seven monographs, numerous journal articles, and a textbook. He remained active in the alcohol and drugs history field through enthusiastic participation in the ADHS leadership and conferences, devoted mentorship of junior scholars, and his most recent work, Prohibition: A Concise History (Oxford University Press, 2018). Bill passed away on March 19, 2020.
The Rorabaugh Book Prize 2024
Call for Submissions
The Rorabaugh Book Prize commemorates the life of the late William ("Bill") Rorabaugh (1945-2020), a pioneer in the social history of alcohol, University of Washington professor, and a former president and tireless supporter of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society (ADHS).
The Rorabaugh Prize will be awarded every other year by the ADHS to the author(s) of a first or second monograph in the English language in the history of alcohol and drugs (scholars who have published previously in other fields are welcome to apply). Prizewinning books will exhibit the high standards of scholarship, superior quality, and distinguished contribution to the field that exemplified the work of Bill Rorabaugh. The Rorabaugh Prize shall be awarded without regard to citizenship, nationality, or any protected category. We encourage submissions from all scholars, independent and university-affiliated, without regard to academic rank.
Books with copyright dates of 2024 or 2025 are eligible. The prizes will be awarded in June of 2026 at the ADHS conference.
Anyone may nominate a book, including its author. Nominations for the prize must be submitted electronically using the form below.
Nominators are responsible for confirming the publication date and for forwarding one print copy to each member of the Award Committee at their own expense. Nominated books must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2025. ADHS membership is not required to be eligible for the award.
Members of the 2026 Committee:
Miriam Kingsberg Kadia (chair)
University of Colorado Boulder
Paul Gootenberg
Stony Brook University
Haggai Ram
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Questions regarding the Rorabaugh Prize? Please contact miriam.kadia@colorado.edu.
Rorabaugh Prize Recipients
The Rorabaugh Prize will be awarded annually to the author(s) of a first or second monograph in the English language in the history of alcohol and drugs. Prizewinning books will exhibit the high standards of scholarship, superior quality, and distinguished contribution to the field that exemplified the work of Bill Rorabaugh. The Rorabaugh Prize shall be awarded without regard to citizenship, nationality, or any protected category.
2024 Rorabaugh Prize Recipient:
Julia Sarreal
2022 Rorabaugh Prize Recipients:
Haggai Ram
David Herzberg
Below are excerpts from the Rorabaugh Prize Award Presentation delivered by Isaac Campos, chair of the prize committee.
Recipient: Haggai Ram
Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel
Stanford University Press, 2020
"Based in multi-archival research in three countries, using original sources in four languages, this work makes an enormous, pioneering contribution. It demonstrates how the rise and fall of political borders, due mainly to war and imperialism, combined with the emergence of international drug-control regimes, to produce opportunities for drug trafficking which were quickly taken advantage of by black-market entrepreneurs. Yet it also speaks to a larger phenomenon of how, despite the best efforts of elites, ideologues, and even Great Powers, regions cannot easily be dis-integrated (something that should ring quite familiar to the many of us here who have worked on the flows of drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border). This book follows the hashish commodity chain in Mandatory Palestine, Israel, and the surrounding region to illuminate not only the flows of this drug, but the enduring integration of this region even after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I. Like all of the best books in drug history, this one not only teaches us a lot about drugs, but it provides deep insights into the broader history of the time and place in question. It also brilliantly recounts the history of the hashish phenomenon at multiple levels, political, cultural, local, regional, and global, while constantly making reference to the broader global historiography on drugs. At the same time, it's simply full of wonderfully entertaining details, from the development of pulp fiction detective series’ featuring heroic, drug fighting Israeli detectives, to the use of the stomachs of live camels to smuggle hashish into Egypt."
Recipient: David Herzberg
White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America
University of Chicago Press, 2020
"This book breaks down the traditional barrier between “drugs” and “medicine,” and demonstrates that throughout the twentieth and now twenty-first centuries, the total prohibition of certain especially demonized intoxicants like heroin and cocaine, and the continued existence of huge legal markets controlled by pharmaceutical firms and physicians via prescription, have really been two sides of the same coin. This point has been suggested by scholars in the past, but this book does an extraordinary job of demonstrating exactly how these dual but interconnected markets have really worked, from the nitty-gritty of bureaucratic regulation, to the politics of drug control, to the machinations of the often wildly irresponsible pharmaceutical firms who have often sowed addiction and death in the name of profit. But the book also demonstrates how a relatively safe and progressive middle-ground market for drugs can and actually has existed in the United States, as recently as the 1970s, where consumers had regular and safe access to psychotropics, but were at the same time protected from the most reckless and irresponsible purveyors of these drugs."
CONTRIBUTIONS
Contributions to the Rorabaugh Prize fund are tax-deductible and may be made at any time. Notifications of the tax-deductible contribution will be sent by the treasurer in early January to coincide with most country tax documents.
You may donate online or by check. If you prefer to pay by check, please make them out to The Alcohol and Drugs History Society.
Checks should be sent to the address below:
Dr. James Bradford
ADHS Treasurer
48 Wake Robin Rd.
Sudbury, MA 01776
If you prefer to donate online, please select the "Donate Here" button at the bottom of the page. This button will re-direct you a secure PayPal donation link.