Other than your interest in the Ken Burns piece featured on PBS, what other interest do you have in the re-publising you have described?
Mr. Van Dyke,
Hello.
Thank you for your email. I appreciate your response.
I am not sure I understand your question. My interest in re-publishing Mrs. Willebrandt's book is to get the information out to a current audience. I believe her thoughts and ideas are worth reviving and bringing back to discuss. So much has happened since the book came out, but she did not have the advantage of knowing what was to occur after its publication and her resignation, like the Great Depression and World War II.
If the book is re-published it can be put into the hands of people very easily. At this point, as you have found out, getting current copies is very difficult, and the ones that do exist are in very poor condition and outrageously priced. In this case, even if discussions of the book were to occur, people would not be able to obtain a copy. Once the book is re-published and made current and accessible to everybody, it would be easier to initiate discussions, and for people to purchase the book.
Per copyright laws, nothing in the book can be re-published, not even a paragraph or chapter for a magazine article, without the permission of the copyright owner, in this case, you and your siblings.
In my opinion, your grandmother was a brilliant woman, and she was put into a very difficult situation, and, as the book proves, she was correct about so many things in which she did not receive proper credit. My intention is not to discuss whether Prohibition was right or wrong, but to bring back the discussion about whether it was an enforceable law, the area in which she was in charge. And, given the proper support, could it have been enforced? That is what your grandmother struggled with every day. In each chapter, she breaks down, one by one, all the areas in which the law was not given the proper support, but with that proper support in which she asked for from her supervisors countless times, she felt it could have been enforceable.
I am a firm believer in law, its principles and foundation, as, I believe, your grandmother did also. A law is only as good as its ability to be enforced, and the people who are designated to enforce it need to have the full support of the system to do their jobs. Your grandmother did her best to enforce Prohibition, but she was not given the full support to do her job, and this is what she detailed in the book. She felt that with all the proper support that she outlined, the law would have been enforceable.
The argument I have heard all my life from history books why Prohibition failed is because it was not an enforceable law. How could somebody enforce whether somebody had a drink or not, the argument goes? However, Mrs. Willebrandt believed differently, and I believe her, and I want her opinions to have another chance to be discussed and reviewed. History owes her another chance with full hindsight.
My idea to invite historians with an interest in this time period is to give additional viewpoints on what Mrs. Willebrandt discussed in her book. I want to take each chapter, and, at the end of each chapter, have knowledgeable people discuss what they thought about the ideas she outlined. I believe that so much time has elapsed that her book has been forgotten about and swept under the carpet, and this would allow her ideas to be talked about with some fresh perspectives.
I hope this help to answer some questions. Let me know if you have more questions or concerns.
Jackie Phillips
