Author Night at Hubbell Library: Brian Altobello

Whiskey, Women, and War

"Whiskey, Women, and War: How the Great War Shaped Jim Crow New Orleans" explores how the rise of patriotism in World War I collided with civil liberties, reshaping New Orleans' cultural landscape.

Whiskey, Women, and War: How the Great War Shaped Jim Crow New Orleans surveys the various ways the city confronted the demands of World War I under the supervision of a dynamic political machine boss. Local author Brian Altobello analyzes the mobilization of the local population in terms of enlistments and war bond sales and addresses the anti-vice crusade meant to safeguard the American war effort, giving attention to Prohibition and the closure of the red-light district known as Storyville. He studies the political fistfight over women’s suffrage, as New Orleans’s Gordon sisters demanded the vote predicated on the preservation of white supremacy. Finally, he examines race relations in the city, as African Americans were integrated into the city’s war effort and cultural landscape even as Jim Crow was firmly established. Ultimately, the volume brings to life this history of a city that endured World War I in its own singular style.

The discussion will be followed by a book signing. 

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.

Sponsored by Friends of Hubbell Library

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