Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists

By Jean H. Baker

Book Overview

They forever changed America: Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, Alice Paul. At their revolution's start in the 1840s, a woman's right to speak in public was questioned. By its conclusion in 1920, the victory in woman's suffrage had also encompassed the most fundamental rights of citizenship: the right to control wages, hold property, to contract, to sue, to testify in court. Their struggle was confrontational (women were the first to picket the White House for a political cause) and violent (women were arrested, jailed, and force-fed in prisons). And like every revolutionary before them, their struggle was personal. For the first time, the eminent historian Jean H. Baker tellingly interweaves these women's private lives with their public achievements, presenting these revolutionary women in three dimensions, humanized, and marvelously approachable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809095289
• ISBN13: 9780809095285
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good

This book is very interesting. I love that it does not read like a history book. I have a hard time reading non-fiction but this book reads like a story. I recommend this book to anyone. Not even just the history buffs.

A powerful, well-documented, tell-all about the lives of the 1st American Suffragists

This book was very thought and emotion provoking. A must read for all women. Women must never forget the gargantuan struggle our foremothers endured to gain something so powerful---the right to vote. You'll be appalled at the night of terror these women, up to 70 years of age, endured by hostile cruel men. The vote is only the beginning of equality, however. Without actually voting, the right to vote serves no purpose. Last note is that this extremely well-documented book is very open about the uncomfortable topic of the sexual proclivities of some of these suffragists. It was disturbing to me that some of these very Christian women could have lesbian tendencies, but apparently these accounts come directly from letters they wrote to others. Thankfully, it is not a book that argues for or against lesbianism; it just documents the part it played, if any, in these women's lives. God does say in the Bible that women may be the physically weaker sex, but they ARE EQUAL to men in God's sight.

An amazing book!

Before reading this book, I had basically no idea about anything dealing with the Suffrage movement, except that it was Susan B. Anthony who was on a coin (and this was even after taking a college-level US History course). This book is a MUST for any person who wants to get a general overview not only about five of the most influential women in the Suffrage Movement, but also of the movement overall. It doesn't have any "boring" parts, and is all information that everyone should know. I can't recommend it enough!