Karen Blumenthal (1959–2020)

A strong-willed woman starts a small-town movement that soon gains national attention.
Religious leaders encourage Americans to "do the right thing" even when the "wrong thing" is a multibillion-dollar business that demands nothing from its users.
Criminal activity swells in large cities that could be prevented if only the law didn't make the crime so profitable.
The upper class wields enough money and privacy to do whatever it wants, no matter the rules imposed on the public at large.
show more Government officials passionately decrying "immoral behavior" turn out to engage in that exact behavior.
Despite sensational headlines about history in the making, large swaths of middle and suburban America are largely unaffected and go about their day to day lives.

Do any of those statements sound familiar? Such are the events I've picked up from Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition. Karen Blumenthal does an excellent job of singling out the individuals who stuck out during the formation, enforcement, and breakdown of Prohibition. I'm pretty sure historical events don't count as spoilers, but I was amused and surprised by some of the endorsements and resistances to Prohibition. The only parts that dragged for me involved official legislation and the game of votes in Congress; otherwise, this is the go-to book for all things hypocritical, self-righteous, honestly concerned, humorously daring, ordinarily tragic, and criminally tragic in America.

This entry's title comes from Morris Shepard, who observed that local stores went from selling all manner of things to reverting back to alcohol. He believed with all his heart that the lack of alcohol in Americans' lives would lead them to more productive and interesting causes. Blumenthal seems to ask which is worse: millions of alcohol dependents, or slightly fewer alcohol dependents funding a series of Al Capones? show less

Written for teenagers but very valuable for all of us, this book recounts the history of birth control and abortion in the US, with an emphasis on women taking care of other women and on the machinations of the Supreme Court and the "right to privacy". The "Jane" in the title refers to the brave collective of college students in Chicago who helped their classmates and low income city residents find safe, if not legal, abortion providers in 1968 - 1970. The collective's leaders were actually show more arrested and criminally charged and were only cleared when Roe v Wade was decided in 1970 and again in 1973 (check out the excellent 2018 movie Ask For Jane). The book also tackles the Margaret Sanger/eugenics controversy. This would be a fantastic mother-daughter book club read.

Quotes: "Southern Baptists and other evangelicals became increasingly uncomfortable with the remarkable social revolution of the previous two decades, especially gains by women, affirmative action for minorities, sex education in schools, abortion rights, gay rights, and a more relaxed attitude towards sex, made possible by the Pill's effectiveness. Another sore spot: IRS rulings that Christian schools had to accept nonwhite children if they wanted to keep their nonprofit status." show less

Blumenthal’s careful study of the Prohibition era of 1919-1933 in the United States works not only as a history text but also as an exploration of essential American attitudes about personal freedom and responsibility, attitudes toward intoxicating substances, religion, crime, and much more. Blumenthal also deserves credit for intelligently presenting the case of the dry side of the issue rather than simply portraying the prohibitionists as mindless fanatics. Both wets and dries get fair show more evaluations. Much like the Ken Burns documentary Prohibition (also from 2011), Blumenthal goes into meticulous detail (considering the length of the book and her audience) about just how complex the laws were and all the different groups involved—women, immigrants, African Americans, religious sects, organized crime syndicates, etc. One minor omission—she does not mention the role of the Ku Klux Klan on the dry side. Still, this book remains an excellent historical document for YA readers. show less

Let Me Play:The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America
Blumenthal and McCartney
4 stars

This book is a reference or text book with a middle grade reading level. The first edition was published in 2005 in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. The updated version that I read was published in 2020 with additional chapters written by the original author’s daughter.

Although the book’s stated purpose is to show how Title IX changed girl’s show more education, it is essentially a brief history of the women’s movement in the United States, beginning with Seneca Falls in 1848. The author provides the necessary background of ‘how things were’ to emphasize the impact of the cultural change. The book is full of photographs and insets of prominent women in sports, science, and politics. Personally, I enjoyed the Doonesbury cartoons and the recap of the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs match.

This is a very well organized book with a timeline, index, source notes, and bibliography. Exactly the kind of book a classroom teacher would want kids to use for report writing (back in the day when actual paper books were used for such things). I truly enjoyed two pages at the back of the book called Then and Now. The author compiled quotes from the 1970’s from a variety of people, mostly those opposed to Title IX as it applied to equal education. These quotes were placed next to a column of Now quotes. It was interesting to see how opinions and positions had changed. Or not.

I checked this book out from my local library. I don’t know exactly how long it has been on the shelves since its 2020 publication, but it looked as if I was the only person to have cracked it open. show less