Cover Image: The Women's Suffrage Movement

The Women's Suffrage Movement

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Member Reviews

This is a handy resource of original writings by those who were part of the suffrage movement in. This will be a good reference to have for my memoir and history research. This is also a good read for personal knowledge.

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THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT edited by Sally Roesch Wagner is another new work of non-fiction that has been recommended for teens and is now on our library shelves. Gloria Steinem provides the foreword and praises Wagner for beginning this book by noting that "suffrage leaders were inspired by the example of a free and equal Native American women." The intertwining of racial and gender struggles for equality is reflected in the cover, as an eye peaks out. Wagner, a well-known authority on women's studies and currently serving as adjunct faculty at Syracuse University, does indeed begin by describing matrilineal cultures. She includes a section titled "Women Voted Before the United States Was Formed" which contains the text of speeches and periodical articles from the late 1800s about the Iroquois Confederacy. The next portion looks mainly at documents crafted by organizers up to and including the Seneca Falls Convention. Then, Wagner includes roughly ten primary sources for each of the subsequent decades before 1920. There are private letters, letters to the editor, autobiography excerpts, a eulogy, and much more. This collection is filled with important historical documents and memorable quotes such as this one from Carrie Chapman Catt: "Women's suffrage is inevitable. Suffragists knew it before Nov. 4, 1917; opponents afterward." THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT will provide more than ample material for assignments like asking students to describe the author and context of any artifact here, for, as Steinem quotes Paula Gunn Allen, "the root of oppression is the loss of memory." THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT received a starred review from Library Journal, which called it "an essential compilation."

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This is an in-depth collection of original writings by the women and men who were key players in the suffrage movement in the United States. It's a good reference to have on hand, but could also be read cover-to-cover.

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This is such a terrific resource—wonderful just to read, but I can imagine it in huge stacks in college bookstores. The book is divided into sections, each with a very well-done introduction followed by some of the key writings of the period. The book includes not just the obvious Cady Stantons but also a much more diverse look at the effort to gain suffrage. I am planning to pitch a piece on suffrage books, and will definitely include it. Thanks so much for the early look! I see why it wouldn’t necessarily be great in audio, but if you do end up doing an audio release, please give me a head’s up.

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An enormously helpful and handy primer for both classroom and personal use. As we approach key anniversaries, it's important to help students understand the roots of the movement that are often overlooked and this text will aide in doing so.

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