Synopses & Reviews
It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places. Over time, their protests, petitions, and activism paid off—when a Constitutional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified, it was hailed as the end of public drunkenness, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills related to booze. Instead, it began a decade of lawlessness, when children smuggled (and drank) illegal alcohol, the most upright citizens casually broke the law, and a host of notorious gangsters entered the public eye. Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of unique characters from the era, this fascinating book looks at the rise and fall of the disastrous social experiment known as Prohibition. Karen Blumenthal's Bootleg is a 2011 Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year title. One of School Library Journals Best Nonfiction Books of 2011.YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist in 2012.
Review
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award
Booklist Editor's Choice Award Kirkus Reviews Best Books for TeensSchool Library Journal Best Books of the Year * "A fast-paced, gripping narrative . . . An informative, insightful account of a fascinating period of American history." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review * "Gangsters, guns, and political battles--this book has them all--and presents them in compelling prose . . . a lively read." —School Library Journal, starred review * "Lively anecdotes and personal stories keep the reading brisk and often quite jovial." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review * ". . . a highly readable, well-shaped look at the Eighteenth Amendment . . . a top-notch resource." —Booklist, starred review "The scope is ambitious, but Blumenthal investigates various tangents with telling anecdotes, quotes, statistics, photographs, and illustrations without losing her focus on the bigger picture. Whether you consider ongoing problems with substance abuse or increasingly polarized political discourse, the book is startlingly relevant to modern times in many ways, marking Blumenthal as one of the more intellectually adventurous authors writing for young adults today.” —Horn Book Magazine
Review
"This is fine historical writing: an epic story on a broad canvas that never loses sight of individual moments of human drama; a historical methodology infused with political, intellectual, cultural, and social strands; a complex sequence of cause and effect; an illuminating synthesis of primary and secondary sources; and a thoughtful marriage of words, picture, and design."and#8212;
Horn Book, starred reviewand#160;
"Covering 10,000 years of history and ranging the world, the story is made personal by the authors' own family stories, their passion for the subject and their conviction that young people are up to the challenge of complex, well-written narrative history."and#8212;Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewand#160;
"As the title suggests, this stirring, highly detailed history of the sugar trade reaches across time and around the globe . . . The book's scope is ambitious, but the clear, informal prose, along with maps and archival illustrations, makes the horrific connections with dramatic immediacy."and#8212;Booklist
"This is a poignant, ultimately hopeful essay that clearly chronicles the human pursuit of sugar to satisfy our collective sweet tooth."and#8212;The Bulletin
"An impassioned, thought-provoking account that forces us to look anew at the things we take for granted."and#8212;Jennifer Brown, Shelf Awareness
"This book, at once serious and engaging, traces the complex history of sugar over vast expanses of time and space, exploring ways in which this one commodity influenced the formation of empires, the enslavement and migrations of peoples, the development of ideas about liberty, and so much more."and#8212;Deborah Warner, Curator, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Synopsis
Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of unique characters from the era, this fascinating book by an award-winning author looks at the rise and fall of the disastrous social experiment known as Prohibition.
It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places.
Over time, their protests, petitions, and activism paid off--when a Constitutional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified, it was hailed as the end of public drunkenness, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills related to booze. Instead, it began a decade of lawlessness, when children smuggled (and drank) illegal alcohol, the most upright citizens casually broke the law, and a host of notorious gangsters entered the public eye.
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition is fast-paced non-fiction perfect for anyone who's interested in American history, paricularly the 1920s, gangsters, bootleggers, the history of alcohol in the US, the Eighteenth Amendment and the Constitution, and American politics.
Read more thrilling nonfiction by Karen Blumenthal:
Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History (A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist)
Tommy: The Gun That Changed America
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different
Praise for Bootleg
A Kirkus Best Teen Book of the Year
A School Library Journal's Best Nonfiction Book
A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist
"A fast-paced, gripping narrative . . . An informative, insightful account of a fascinating period of American history." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Gangsters, guns, and political battles--this book has them all--and presents them in compelling prose . . . a lively read." --School Library Journal, starred review
"Lively anecdotes and personal stories keep the reading brisk and often quite jovial." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review
"A highly readable, well-shaped look at the Eighteenth Amendment . . . a top-notch resource." --Booklist, starred review
"The scope is ambitious, but Blumenthal investigates various tangents with telling anecdotes, quotes, statistics, photographs, and illustrations without losing her focus on the bigger picture. Whether you consider ongoing problems with substance abuse or increasingly polarized political discourse, the book is startlingly relevant to modern times in many ways, marking Blumenthal as one of the more intellectually adventurous authors writing for young adults today." --Horn Book Magazine
Synopsis
When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives.
Synopsis
When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europeand#8217;s Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways. Time line, source notes, bibliography, index.
About the Author
Marc Aronson has won many awards and prizes for his books, including the first Sibert Award and the Boston Globeand#150;Horn Book Award for Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for Eldorado. Marina Budhos is an assistant professor of English at William Paterson University. She is the author of Ask Me No Questions, winner of the inaugural James Cook Teen Book Award. She and her husband live with their two sons in Maplewood, New Jersey.