Campbell, Robert A. 1952-

PERSONAL:

Born 1952. Education: University of California at Santa Cruz, B.A. (with honors); University of British Columbia, M.A.; Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, Ph.D. Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, skiing, and kayaking.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Capilano College, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7J 3H5, Canada. E-mail—robertc@capcollege.bc.ca.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. Capilano College, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, history teacher.

MEMBER:

Squamish Historical Society (board of directors).

WRITINGS:

Demon Rum or Easy Money: Government Control of Liquor in British Columbia from Prohibition to Privatization, Carleton University Press (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1991.

Sit Down and Drink Your Beer: Regulating Vancouver's Beer Parlours, 1925-1954, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

Contributor of articles to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert A. Campbell is a historian who has written extensively about the regulation of liquor in Canada. In his book Sit Down and Drink Your Beer: Regulating Vancouver's Beer Parlours, 1925-1954, Campbell discusses the many issues surrounding the legal consumption of alcohol in Canadian beer parlors, which were strongly regulated by the government. These drinking establishments were the only public venues for alcohol consumption in Vancouver following a brief war-related prohibition. The author draws data for his study from a variety of sources, such as police and other government reports and union records. He especially explores how one social construct for regulating the parlors proved inadequate because of a diverse population who wanted to go to them, including heterosexuals, homosexuals, and women. "Concerns that these parlors might come to resemble the discredited preprohibition saloons led to a variety of regulations that governed the behavior and attitudes of those who came in to drink," wrote Alan C. Ogborne in Contemporary Drug Problems. "These regulations encompassed not only drinking and related behaviors but also the class, gender, sexuality, age, and even citizenship of patrons." Ogborne went on to call SitDown and Drink Your Beer a "very readable and well-researched book that can be recommended to anyone with an interest in modern alcohol policy." Samuel Wagar wrote in the American Review of Canadian Studies: "The richest discussion is that of lesbian and gay bars in Vancouver, … where a series of oral history videotapes gave Campbell access to the voices of the patrons."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Review of Canadian Studies, autumn, 2003, Samuel Wagar, review of Sit Down and Drink Your Beer: Regulating Vancouver's Beer Parlours, 1925-1954, p. 425.

Beaver: Exploring Canada's History, December, 2001, review of Sit Down and Drink Your Beer, p. 53.

Contemporary Drug Problems, fall, 2002, Alan C. Ogborne, review of Sit Down and Drink Your Beer, p. 649.

ONLINE

Capilano College Web site,http://www.capcollege.bc.ca/ (February 20, 2007), faculty profile of author.

Historical Studies in Education, University of Western Ontario Web site,http://www.edu.uwo.ca/HSE/ (February 20, 2007), Craig Heron, review of Sit Down and Drink Your Beer.