Happy Holidays from Points!

It’s been quite the year here at Points. We published 93 posts from 27 contributors, including two roundtables on Mad Men and Howard Becker’s canonical book Becoming a Marihuana User. We ran three tributes to scholars we’ve lost over the past twelve months (Joseph Gusfield, Ernie Kurtz and Madelon Powers), and featured seven interviews with Fiction Points, with eight more coming from scholars who’ve written nonfiction works on drug and alcohol history.

In 2015 we covered topics as disparate as alcohol in communist Yugoslavia, the “big tent” of addiction scholarship, and a review of “Spirited Republic,” an exhibit on America’s relationship with alcohol currently on view at the National Archives. We explored the role of toxicology reports in the deaths of those killed in police actions, and explored, with Joseph Spillane, the history of “The Forgotten Drug War.” Contributing editors Michael Durfee revealed the continued importance of the Crack Era, while Bob Beach took a deep dive into Harry J. Anslinger’s Gore File and found amazing things there. We’ve welcomed over a dozen guest bloggers, and heard from scholars who have been with Points from the beginning. We’ve grown, evolved and transformed, and we couldn’t have done it without you, our readers.

This is a season of renewal and reflection, and a time of gratitude and thanksgiving. Fortunately, it’s also a time of rest and peace. With that, we’re announcing that Points will be on hiatus until January 22nd so that we can rest and recuperate, in order to get ready for even more unique and insightful material for the next year. We hope that you enjoy your break and that your holiday season is filled with health and happiness, and Points looks forward to joining you again in January.

Thanks for supporting Points in 2015. We wish you happy holidays and a very happy New Year. We’ll see you in 2016!