Scan barcode
abby271's review
I was reading this book as a reference for my senior thesis. It was very helpful, but I did not finish because I was reading so many books on the topic at once.
cactuswren's review
5.0
Absolutely fantastic, incredibly informative. This should be required reading for any feminist or anyone interested in the women’s suffrage movement. Sally Roesch Wagner has compiled a huge selection of primary documents written by people in the movement, and she has edited it to give us context.
My favorite thing about this book is that Wagner is not afraid to show us the good, the bad, and the ugly. The women’s suffrage movement was seemingly endless, extremely challenging, and often full of disagreements and infighting. Wagner helped me to appreciate the struggle even more, but she also shines a light on inequalities even within the movement itself. Be prepared to read some awful, racist words from women you may consider to be your heroes.
The amount of work and dedication women had to the suffrage cause is awe-inspiring. They worked relentlessly, many of them for their entire lives, often with little or no reward. People mocked and shunned them, but still they fought. Wagner reminds us that women were not “given” the right to vote, they fought tooth and nail for about 70 years for every tiny little victory that led to the 19th amendment. And for many women (especially in the South where Jim Crow laws prevented black men and women from voting), that fight continued until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act helped to curb voter suppression (unfortunately the VRA was gutted in 2013, so we are beginning to see another rise in voter suppression tactics).
Wagner’s afterword is beautifully written and gives me inspiration for the fights that continue today: “History is shaped by those who swim with the tide as well as those who swim against it, stemming the tide of injustice. To choose not to act is the worst possible action. There are no innocent bystanders to history. Inaction ensures that injustice will continue in your name.”
My favorite thing about this book is that Wagner is not afraid to show us the good, the bad, and the ugly. The women’s suffrage movement was seemingly endless, extremely challenging, and often full of disagreements and infighting. Wagner helped me to appreciate the struggle even more, but she also shines a light on inequalities even within the movement itself. Be prepared to read some awful, racist words from women you may consider to be your heroes.
The amount of work and dedication women had to the suffrage cause is awe-inspiring. They worked relentlessly, many of them for their entire lives, often with little or no reward. People mocked and shunned them, but still they fought. Wagner reminds us that women were not “given” the right to vote, they fought tooth and nail for about 70 years for every tiny little victory that led to the 19th amendment. And for many women (especially in the South where Jim Crow laws prevented black men and women from voting), that fight continued until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act helped to curb voter suppression (unfortunately the VRA was gutted in 2013, so we are beginning to see another rise in voter suppression tactics).
Wagner’s afterword is beautifully written and gives me inspiration for the fights that continue today: “History is shaped by those who swim with the tide as well as those who swim against it, stemming the tide of injustice. To choose not to act is the worst possible action. There are no innocent bystanders to history. Inaction ensures that injustice will continue in your name.”
anathema99's review
4.0
I'm giving this book 4 stars for being good at what it is—a book to reference on the Woman's Rights Movement with a wealth of great firsthand accounts. Most of those accounts, however, were boring to me. It started off smooth with Stanton's writing on the mother-age, which I loved, but my mistake was trying to read 583 pages of a political movement like a novel. It's not kind of book.
Still, I learned a lot from it. I especially value learning about the radical Victoria Woodhull, the woman who stood against a rich and entitled rapist a hundred years before #MeToo, and Belva Blackwood, the the first woman to campaign and get votes to become the US President (Woodhull tried earlier, but didn't campaign) after successfully lobbying for many women's rights laws.
Still, I learned a lot from it. I especially value learning about the radical Victoria Woodhull, the woman who stood against a rich and entitled rapist a hundred years before #MeToo, and Belva Blackwood, the the first woman to campaign and get votes to become the US President (Woodhull tried earlier, but didn't campaign) after successfully lobbying for many women's rights laws.
More...