Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine & the Lawless days of Prohibition

Blumenthal begins and ends her tale of Prohibition with the story of the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre. At first, this seems like a very unfitting starting point. However, Blumenthal dedicates the remainder of her book to explaining how both the Temperance Movement and the enforcement, or lack of enforcement, of Prohibition could get so our of control. Blumenthal intersperses biographies of important Temperance movement leaders such as Morris Sheppard and Carrie Nation as well as Prohibition figures like Al Capone.

I found this book to be richly entertaining and felt that it accomplished a second task beyond entertainment, being informative. I had laugh-out-loud moments when I imagined "Carry A. Nation," a little old lady, walking into an illegal saloon and smashing up the place because of her hatred of booze.

Before reading this book, I thought I knew everything that I would find between the covers, the origins of NASCAR, crooked cops, and a society that refused to follow the laws that they had fought for only a few year prior. However, I was most impressed by and learned a great deal from Blumenthal's content on the Temperance movement. I've always understood that parts of American society had a certain hatred for drinking, but by learning the origins of that hatred, I came to understand how the 14th Amendment came to be.

The 14th Amendment was backed by a very politically savvy group that once enjoyed the majority, if only for a brief time. Once they achieved their means, passing an amendment to outlaw alcohol, they did not really have a plan. This is one of the main reasons the amendment was repealed, lack of political foresight.

Students should take learning from this. A politician can often sway us to follow him or her, but when that politician lacks the ability to follow through, we need to be smart enough to identify that. Thus, before and after reading this book I would ask students to make contemporary political connections.

I find few faults in this book. However, I understand that there are a few school districts across this country where parents would not appreciated their children reading about speakeasies, saloons, and gangsters. Kirkus Reviews calls Bootleg "an informative, insightful account of a fascinating period of American history." School Library Journal says that "The breadth of the well-researched material makes Bootleg a substantial resource for reports; a deep bibliography and copious source notes provide ample opportunities for further study."

I found the content to be accurate and the method of organization to be enticing; beginning and ending with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre helped me to understand the lack of control of human emotions on all sides of the Prohibition debate, from members of Temperance Leagues, to gangsters.

Interspersed with full page photographs of prominent figures, political cartoons, newspaper clippings, and actual photographs of bootleggers and Temperance advocates, the design and style of writing keep this from being a dry book of facts.

Most of the classroom or school learning that comes from this book might be supplementary. I doubt that much of the content will tie into state social studies standards. However, I would include this text if a teacher asked me to pull biographies for a student biography project. There are too many interesting and unsavory characters to not point inquiring minds this way.

This text also provides a good model for researchers. There are bibliography and source notes by chapter, a list of acknowledgements, picture credits and an extensive index. At the end of the book, Blumenthal also provides lists of books on important topics in the text like Women of the WCTU, Carrie Nation, the Anti-Saloon League, Cars and Henry Ford, and Al Capone.

Finally, don't misunderstand me, but I would have worn a "Carry A. Nation" hatchet pin because I admire a woman who has the courage to walk into a bar and bust the place up.

Resources:

Blumenthal, Karen. Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition. New York: Roaring Book Press, 2011. ISBN:978-1-59643-449-3