Carry A. Nation left a legacy as a crusader who believed that her God-given duty was to expose the evils of alcohol and other forms of "sin" (tobacco, Freemasonry, and religious hypocrisy). A reformer, author, lecturer, leader, and a fighter for feminist rights, she was best known for her crusades against the "demon rum." Nation reaped the benefits of her crusade when the issue of Prohibition was prominent, from 1870 to 1920. With her six-foot frame and her alpaca dress, she was a distinctive figure who attempted through her "hatchetations" to spread the Word of God to those in saloons, destroying the establishments while singing God's praises. Nation saw herself as a "Mother Defender" and a twentieth-century Joan of Arc. In her autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation (1904), she writes: "I represent the distracted, suffering, loving motherhood of the World."

Carrie Amelia Moore was...