Liberated Spirits: Two Women Who Battled Over Prohibition

by Hugh Ambrose, John Schuttler

Overview

A provocative new take on the women behind a perennially fascinating subject--Prohibition--by bestselling author and historian Hugh Ambrose.

The passage of the 18th Amendment (banning the sale of alcohol) and the 19th (women's suffrage) in the same year is no coincidence. These two Constitutional Amendments enabled women to redefine themselves and their place in society in a way historians have neglected to explore. Liberated Spirits describes how the fight both to pass and later to repeal Prohibition was driven by women, as exemplified by two remarkable women in particular.

With fierce drive and acumen, Mabel Willebrandt transcended the tremendous hurdles facing women lawyers and was appointed Assistant Attorney General. Though never a Prohibition campaigner, once in office she zealously pursued enforcement despite a corrupt and ineffectual agency.

Wealthy Pauline Sabin had no formal education in law or government but she too fought entrenched discrimination to rise in the ranks of the Republican Party. While Prohibition meant little to her personally--aristocrats never lost access to booze--she seized the fight to repeal it as a platform to bring newly enfranchised women into the political process and compete on an equal footing with men.

Along with a colorful cast of supporting characters, from rumrunners and Prohibition agents on the take to senators and feuding society matrons, Liberated Spirits brings the Roaring Twenties to life in a brand new way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698183636
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/16/2018
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	368
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Hugh Ambrose was a noted historian and the bestselling author of The Pacific: Hell Was an Ocean Away. He passed away in 2015 after completing this book. John Schuttler is a consulting historian, researching and writing on numerous topics for dozens of clients in the public and private sectors.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2018
The late best-selling author Ambrose (The Pacific) and historian Schuttler here paint a new picture of the Prohibition movement, showcasing two high-powered women on opposite sides of the fight. The passage of the 18th and 19th Amendments secured women's place in the political landscape for the first time, and smart, eager women were using their newfound liberty to campaign for causes. This book showcases the grit, political savvy, and determination of socialite Pauline Sabin, who mobilized women to repeal Prohibition, and Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who fought for the enforcement of Prohibition as she rose through the ranks of California's Republican Party. Ambrose and Schuttler shed new light on the women behind both movements, all the while sprinkling in plenty of action, such as corrupt law enforcement officials and politicians, high society feuds, rum runners, and much more. VERDICT This work rightfully places women in the center of the Prohibition debate while providing a well-researched, fast-paced narrative of efforts to enforce and repeal the 18th Amendment. A must-read for those who enjoy suffrage and Prohibition-era history.—Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI

Library Journal

09/03/2018
This disjointed narrative centers on two women, lawyer Mabel Walker Willebrandt and socialite Pauline Sabin, who both understood “the importance of the moment”—the passage of Prohibition and women’s suffrage in quick succession—but ended up on opposite sides of the liquor ban. The authors’ argument that the success or failure of Prohibition was often measured by the public in terms of the success or failure of these two women is vague and unconvincing. As U.S. assistant attorney general, Willebrandt prosecuted Prohibition violators, so Americans were likely aware of her work, but what they thought of it remains unexamined. New Yorker Sabin represents the anti-prohibitionists (or the “wets”); a rising voice within the Republican Party, she eventually sided with the faction that believed the amendment unconstitutional and ineffective. Appearing throughout the book are accounts of rumrunner Roy Olmstead, who serves as an example of the lawbreakers Willebrandt contended with. The authors skillfully handle these sections, which perk up the tale a bit, but the main personalities here had little interaction with one another, which inevitably saps narrative tension. The link between Prohibition and women’s suffrage is an intriguing and somewhat underexplored angle, but interested readers won’t find a gripping story here. Agent: Brian Lipson, IPG. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Liberated Spirits

“Raises fascinating questions about the role of women in early-20th-century politics. . .A rewardingly intricate account of how one political issue shaped several lives.”—Kirkus Reviews

"An important, timely look at an era that is usually remembered for its speakeasies and flappers." -- Wall Street Journal 

 "Rightly places women in the center of the Prohibition debate while providing a well-researched, fast-paced narrative. . .A must-read." --Library Journal

"Those looking for the political history of Prohibition will value this comprehensive accounting. " --Booklist

 

 

From the Publisher

2018-08-13

Prohibition viewed through the lens of a few little-known historical figures.

While the subtitle suggests a book about two politically engaged Republican women who took opposing sides on the subject of the 18th Amendment, the narrative combines their separate stories with that of a trial of a Seattle policeman convicted of smuggling liquor into the United States from Canada. While the story of Roy Olmstead is intriguing, it probably deserves a book of its own. The more compelling and provocative tales told by Ambrose (The Pacific, 2010), who died before the book was published, and Schuttler, who finished it for publication, are those of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who became assistant attorney general under President Warren Harding, and Pauline Sabin, a New York socialite who became a fundraiser and campaigner as well as one of the first female delegates to a presidential convention. Although the authors' arguments are sometimes clogged by biographical detail and characters and issues that are introduced and then dropped, the book raises fascinating questions about the role of women in early-20th-century politics—specifically about the complicated relationship between the 18th Amendment, which banned the sale of alcohol, and the 19th, which gave women the right to vote. By focusing on individuals affected by Prohibition—and how their views evolved over time—the authors reveal the complexity of the issues it raised. They also bring attention to the pressures that newly empowered women felt. Both of the women, whose paths only crossed occasionally, were constrained by their marital circumstances: Willebrandt, separated from her husband for decades, felt with good reason that divorce would ruin her chances at a career, and Sabin, divorced after an early marriage, needed a second marriage to establish her credibility. Both often felt like pawns in a system aiming to win women's votes without actually giving them any real political power.

Readers willing to dig through dense scholarly details will find a rewardingly intricate account of how one political issue shaped several lives.

Kirkus Reviews

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