Guaranteed to change how you picture Prohibition, this lively history turns the spotlight on four women in the immediate aftermath of winning the vote who played influential roles on all sides of the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments.

In the popular imagination, the story of Prohibition in America is a story of men and male violence, one full of federal agents fighting gangsters over the sale of moonshine. In contrast, Firebrands is the story of four Jazz Age dynamos—all women –who were forces behind the passage, the enforcement, the defiance, and, ultimately, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. They battled each other directly, and they learned to marshal clout with cowed and hypocritical legislators, almost all of them men. Their clash over Prohibition stands as the first significant exercise of women’s political power since women gained the right to vote, and their influence on the American political scene wouldn’t be equaled for decades.

In Gioia Diliberto’s fresh and timely take on this period of history, we meet Ella Boole, the stern and ambitious leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who campaigned fiercely to introduce Prohibition and fought desperately to keep it alive. We also meet Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the most powerful woman in America at the time, who served as the top federal prosecutor charged with enforcing Prohibition. Diliberto tells the story, too, of silent film star Texas Guinan, who ran New York speakeasies backed by the mob and showed that Prohibition was not only absurd but unenforceable. And, she follows Pauline Morton Sabin, a glamorous Manhattan aristocrat who belatedly recognized the cascading evil in Prohibition and mobilized the movement to kill it.

These women led their opposing forces of “Wets” and “Drys” across a teeming landscape of bootleggers, gangsters, federal agents, temperance fanatics, and cowardly politicians, many of them secret drunks. Building on the momentum of suffrage, they forged a path for the activists who followed during the great civil rights battles of the mid-twentieth century. Yet, they have been largely lost to history. In Firebrands, Diliberto finally gives these dynamic figures their due, creating a varied and dramatic portrait of women wielding power, in politics, society, and popular culture.
 

"“Diliberto’s story of four women’s activism in the early 20th century is well-researched, original, and refreshing, especially since this was a period, as the author points out, characterized by phenomena familiar today: ‘craven politicians, fake news, and a Congress in the grip of a fanatical minority.’”" - Wall Street Journal

"“A reminder that . . . the dynamic, capable women behind national movements are all too often written out of the history they help make.”" - Washington Independent Review of Books

"Firebrands visits the Roaring Twenties and beyond, revealing how four women’s efforts shaped the course of American history. . . . Set against a familiar backdrop of flappers and mobsters, Firebrands retells history anew, demonstrating the crucial contributions women made to a fascinating time in the US." - Foreword

"“A fascinating read that tells the story of four women living through the Prohibition era.” " - Roll Call, Best Books of 2024

"Diliberto, the author of celebrated biographies and biographical fiction about women, examines Prohibition and its repeal through the lives of women who used their emergent emancipation to affect social and legal change. With culture wars raging, Diliberto’s lively and cogent historical profiles are keenly relevant." - Booklist

"In this action-packed tale, Diliberto successfully illustrates how four women with radically different backgrounds—a leader of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, an actress running a speakeasy, the prosecutor charged with the enforcement of Prohibition, and an aristocrat—led the fight for their respective sides. In a book about an era synonymous with gangsters and flappers, readers will appreciate Diliberto’s deep dive into these women’s lives and her new take on women’s roles during this time period. . . .  Diliberto’s writing style and the subject matter are likely to appeal to readers across genres." - Library Journal

"[A] lively history." - Free Beacon