Whiskey, Women, and War

Brian Altobello received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in US history from Louisiana State University. He is an educational consultant in New Orleans-area schools, lecturer on the American Queen Steamboat Cruise Line, and author of Into the Shadows Furious: The Brutal Battle for New Georgia.

To its merit, the book includes an extensive bibliography for readers interested in further study. The book is recommended for public libraries with local historical interest in New Orleans and/or the effects of World War I on the home front.--Tamara D. Blackwell "Mississippi Libraries" Brian Altobello's historical insight is razor sharp. A fresh look at fascinating times in New Orleans--Storyville, Prohibition, and World War I. The book also takes a hard look at the impact of Jim Crow laws. His vivid depictions of such key players in New Orleans history as Mayor Martin Behrman in the 1910s make for an exciting read.--Peggy Scott Laborde, Emmy Award-winning producer for WYES-TV and coauthor of five books on New Orleans Drawing from ample contemporary sources, Brian Altobello paints a detailed picture of the city's complex social geography through interwoven accounts of war-support efforts, anti-German policies, white supremacy and its resistance on the part of African Americans, the rise of the movements behind Prohibition and women's suffrage, and the little-known activities of the American Protective League, whose wartime policing of local society was as fervent as it was constitutionally dubious. Overshadowed by its role in the Second World War, New Orleans during World War I is key to understanding the emergence of the modern city, and Altobello excels at bringing this story to light.--Richard Campanella, geographer, author, and professor at Tulane University School of Architecture This volume is replete with fresh detail, illuminating the political, personal, social, and cultural elements in a city that grappled with the era's necessary restraints while it strove to maintain its freer appeal.--Miki Pfeffer, independent researcher at the Center for Mark Twain Studies and author of Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women's Rights at the 1884 New Orleans World's Fair Whiskey, Women, and War stands as the lone text on New Orleans during the pivotal First World War experience. Here is an urban culture in transition torn between the traditions of legal prostitution, free-flowing booze, ethnic pluralism, and local machine politics on one hand and, on the other hand, the Progressive wave of anti-vice crusades, suffrage campaigns, 100 percent Americanism, and an encroaching federal government.--Anthony J. Stanonis, lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and author of Creating the Big Easy: New Orleans and the Emergence of Modern Tourism, 1918-1945