John M. McCardell Jr., president emeritus of Middlebury College, is a respected Civil War scholar. His lectures on the Gettysburg Address command large audiences at alumni meetings, and his seminars on the war always attract eager undergraduates. Recently the genteel academic threw himself into another conflict. Call it the Battle of the Binge. McCardell believes that underage drinking is one of the most pernicious problems on college campuses. He also believes that lowering the drinking age to 18 from 21 would significantly reduce the harmful effects of alcohol consumption among students. In January he founded Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit group that seeks to start a grass-roots movement to change drinking-age laws. He proposes giving "drinking licenses" to 18- to 20-year-olds who complete an alcohol-education program, which he compares to driver-education classes. Such a plan, he says, would allow parents and educators to become role models for responsible drinking and to educate young people about the effects of alcohol. If teenagers who violated drinking laws forfeited their eligibility for the drinking license, he says, it would create a strong incentive for them to abide by the law. McCardell says he is prepared to submit his proposition to public scrutiny. In the coming months, he hopes to challenge the notion that cracking down harder on underage drinking is a sound policy for colleges. Reactions and criticisms regarding McCardell's proposal are presented.