Leo Koury was at the proverbial crossroads of life. He was in his early 50's and realized that everything he had worked for, including a burgeoning law practice, influence in regional and national politics, and a strong reputation as a man who could get things done, no longer held the same significance it once did. Everything changed when he was compelled to attend the 1994 Billy Graham Crusade in Cleveland. With salvation came clarity, and Koury's life suddenly had perspective. He embarked on a new journey from success to significance and realized the root of his dissatisfaction traced back to the relationship with his father, Fred Koury. In Bootlegger's Son: One Man's Journey from His Earthly Father to His Heavenly Father, Koury shares stories about his amazing journey. He chronicles the often-tenuous relationship with his father, his tumultuous youth, the challenges overcome in building a successful law practice, and his roller-coaster ride in politics that culminated with delivering Lorain County, Ohio, for Jimmy Carter's presidency. More importantly, Koury pulls back the curtain and explores his personal struggles with coming to Christianity and accepting salvation. He talks about humility and the decades he spent fighting against the pull of his old, survival-of-the-fittest ways that were a result of his domineering father, a one-time bootlegger and tavern owner. Although Koury's story is one man's personal testimonial, it is a tale that others can relate to, as his life lessons provide enlightenment to how one's relationship with the Heavenly Father can help create a greater appreciation and understanding of his or her earthly father.

During Prohibition, while Al Capone was rising to worldwide prominence as Public Enemy Number One, the townspeople of Templeton, Iowa—population just 418—were busy with a bootlegging empire of their own. Led by the whip-smart and gregarious Joe Irlbeck, an outfit of farmers, small merchants, and even the church Monsignor together created a whiskey so excellent it was ordered by name: “Templeton rye.” However, a prohibition agent from the adjacent county named Benjamin Franklin Wilson was ardent in his fight against alcohol, and he chased Irlbeck for over a decade. But Irlbeck was not Capone, and Templeton would not be ruled by violence like Chicago. Gentlemen Bootleggers tells a never-before-told tale of ingenuity, bootstrapping, and perseverance, showcasing a group of criminals who embraced the American ideals of self-reliance, dynamism, and democratic justice. It relies on previously classified Prohibition Bureau investigation files, federal court case files, extensive newspaper archive research, and a recently disclosed interview with kingpin Joe Irlbeck. Unlike other Prohibition-era tales of big-city gangsters, it provides an important reminder that bootlegging wasn’t only about glory and riches, but could be in the service of a higher goal: producing the best whiskey money could buy. Bryce T. Bauer is a Hearst Award-winning journalist who has written for Saveur, the Daily Iowan, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and other publications. He is coproducing and cowriting West Iowa Whiskey Cookers, a documentary on Prohibition-era bootlegging. He lives in New York City.

The author's father was a major bootlegger in Southeastern North Carolina. He was known far and wide for his ability to make the best moonshine in the area. This bootlegger frequently imposed cruel and even inhumane treatment on his son, especially those involving illegal liquor. James often sustained unusual cruelty and savage beatings for not getting an assigned task perfectly correct. He learned early on to keep his distance from his father and his violent temper, especially when his father was drinking. In those days, there was no intervention by Social Services or law enforcement to prevent the cruelty. Life as a Bootlegger's Son reveals murder and adultery that existed in the family. It also addresses personal survival when confronted with abject poverty and the challenges of growing up largely without parental supervision. The book also has humorous moments that the reader is sure to enjoy. Be sure to read the squirrel story!

This is the first comprehensive biography of Willie Brown, one of California's most enduring and controversial politicians. Audacious, driven, talented—Brown has dominated California politics longer and more completely than any other public figure. James Richardson, a senior writer for The Sacramento Bee, takes us from Brown's childhood, through his years as Speaker of the State Assembly, to his election as San Francisco's mayor. Along the way we get a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of three decades of California politics.

With the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, "drying up" New York City promised to be the greatest triumph of the proponents of Prohibition. Instead, the city remained the nation's greatest liquor market. Smugglers, Bootleggers, and Scofflaws focuses on liquor smuggling to tell the story of Prohibition in New York City. Using previously unstudied Coast Guard records from 1920 to 1933 for New York City and environs, Ellen NicKenzie Lawson examines the development of Rum Row and smuggling via the coasts of Long Island, the Long Island Sound, the Jersey shore, and along the Hudson and East Rivers. Lawson demonstrates how smuggling syndicates on the Lower East Side, the West Side, and Little Italy contributed to the emergence of the Broadway Mob. She also explores New York City's scofflaw population—patrons of thirty thousand speakeasies and five hundred nightclubs—as well as how politicians Fiorello La Guardia, James "Jimmy" Walker, Nicholas Murray Butler, Pauline Morton Sabin, and Al Smith articulated their views on Prohibition to the nation. Lawson argues that in their assertion of the freedom to drink alcohol for enjoyment, New York's smugglers, bootleggers, and scofflaws belong in the American tradition of defending liberty. The result was the historically unprecedented step of repeal of a constitutional amendment with passage of the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933.

Bootlegger is about a Jewish immigrant who became a bootlegger at the age of 19 during Prohibition. By the time he was 24, the government claimed he owed $1.2 million in income taxes. He was a rarity in that he never used violence to achieve his wealth. After three of his breweries in Reading, Pennsylvania were closed down in 1928, he became a partner with Waxey Gordon, the foremost beer baron in the country. Their syndicate in North Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania controlled 17 breweries, according to the Prohibition Bureau. When real beer was legalized in 1933, Hassel became a legitimate brewer by placing a tax stamp on every barrel leaving his breweries. This was in direct opposition to the plans of the Luciano/Lansky forces whose plan was to retain control of the beer and liquor industries after Prohibition. Hassel was killed by mob hit men, setting off an investigation that ruined the mob's scheme. The mystery of who killed Hassel was not solved for almost seventy years. Hassel was not just another beer man who gained considerable wealth in the bootleg racket. He gave to numerous charities and financed a free loan society for the poor during Prohibition. The Hassel Foundation today gives grants totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to worthy causes in the Philadelphia and Reading area.