A glimpse into the lives of female pioneers that helped shape the West. It’s an honest recount of all the women of the emerging west endured. To a reader interested into how the women of the west secured such a rich history it will fascinate and at times infuriate. Happy reading

this was an enjoyable read, the history in the book was great and really well researched. I enjoyed reading this book.

"No Place for a Woman" covers the story of women working to get the right to vote, primarily in the Western states where they had more success earlier than in the East. Each chapter looks at a particular state west of the Mississippi and highlights individuals, both men and women, who worked toward this goal. It's more information, presented in short and easy bites, on the subject than I'd ever read before and I certainly found it interesting and learned a good deal from it. However, I found the writing highly repetitive, to the point where I wondered if the author thought readers just weren't paying attention. I hope there's a chance some of that would be edited and tightened before the final text is published (I read an ARC), because it definitely impacted the number of stars I gave this book. I would have also enjoyed reading more of the speeches given in defense of the movement, diaries and letters quoted far more than they were to provide more individuality to the women Enss tries to highlight in each chapter, and possibly even more of the arguments against woman's suffrage so that the reader had a better idea of the kind of battle women were facing. Arguments against voting are, of course, mentioned but overall the book read a bit more like a summary of the fight instead of getting deeply into the experience. Still, a good introduction to the subject.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I had always thought that women gained the right to vote strictly through the Nineteenth Amendment, and did not realize all the work that had gone on as the battleground went from state to state. Author Chris Enss concentrated on the western states in the union, informing us of the individual players in each effort. I very much enjoyed the period pictures and political jokes as they fit perfectly with the subject.

The book itself read more like a high school textbook than most of the history books I come across. Entries reminded me also of a small encyclopedia, where there is just enough info to tell you who people are without delving into personalities and personal histories. Without these details, the facts become dry and the book less interesting. This is a shame, as the subject matter is important and the chapters dwell on a slice of history that I don’t believe is very well known. There are many quotes from newspapers of the day, which is helpful in offering some of the views of the day.

Bottom line: I recommend this book to those lovers of history who have little knowledge of this subject. Although there is an extensive bibliography, very little of the personal details made their way into this book. While that kept the number of pages down, an opportunity to dress up a great story was missed. Three stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Two Dot Publishing for a complimentary ebook of this title.

WOW! When researching the history of the 19th amendment, not much is taught or even available for our young women to read, on an in-depth review of how each state reacted to the concept of voting rights or any type of voice given to the women working along side their fathers, brothers and husbands. Chris Enss gives us a targeted view of how early Western states not only gave women voting rights, they used this early right as an incentive to increase populations and improve living conditions in these sparsely peopled states. The book is an excellent example of how an author can make history current and interesting. I'm sharing with my many nieces. They should know how history was affected by our long ago ancestors.

An excellent researched historical book explaining the plight of women trying to obtain equal rights especially to gain the vote. This deals with the stonewalling at every opportunity and the determination that woman showed over the years to finally to succeed starting with the newly established territory Wyoming leading the states.
It wasn't all plain sailing as there were differing tactics at times causing splits into camps lead by powerful women resulting in set backs finally overcame to push forward as one entity.
There are many surprising side issues concerning when native Indians obtained equality, women being able to own property, abolitionists that wanted to wait until until the slavery issue was won.
If one has an interest in the subject easy to read then this is for you.
I have given a independent review thanks to NetGalley / Two Dot Books

This book tells us about the women's suffrage movement and gives a history on it. It tells us what women had to face before they were given the right to vote.

I enjoyed this book and the fact that it gave more details in the suffrage movement then what students learn in school. It was also nice to see what trials they had to overcome before they were able to vote.

I would recommend this book to fans of history and women's history.

Why aren't we taught about the other leaders of the suffrage movement and the Western states? The information in this book -- especially the photos -- really personalize the suffrage movement (instead of a generic "large view").

Thank you to Netgalley, for an advanced copy for review!
This was an easily-readable piece of nonfiction, in terms of prose at least, no small feat when you think of the heavy material some of these books cover. It also wasn’t too long, always a relief in this hectic age. However, there were serious formatting issues with the Kindle edition I read, and that contributed to confusion and pages that cut off, as if they were a side bar or something in a printed book, and never seemed to resume. The title, overlaid on every left page I think, would cut into the main text. I found the labor required to figure out how a page read slowed down my reading immensely. This is my main gripe with the book and why I lowered my rating – I hope the final Kindle version has been tweaked because it’s otherwise a fantastic book.
It’s funny because in school, we only ever learned about suffrage as a generic movement, and never in detail. The truth was it was much more a layered issue, state by state and region by region rather than one nationwide issue. This book details specifically the western territories/eventual states’ struggles towards votes for women, and it was anything but a simple fight. Whenever I heard about suffrage, it was mainly the big fights in D.C. and New York, and it was so nice to hear about a different region with different issues.
My eyes were completely opened to the intersectional obstacles to getting the vote for women across the west; I feel thoroughly educated after reading this book. In general, there were fears that those promoting suffrage were also promoting temperance and prohibition; that votes for women would be granting freedom to pursue prohibition as well. There was also a racial intersection. Some of the most well-known suffragists unfortunately sought the right only for those who looked like them, and it was saddening to read even in retrospect. In Utah, Mormonism and polygamy practices were seen as jeopardized by the suffrage movement; in Wyoming, there was conversely an impetus to encourage new settlers, and suffrage could lure them. It was fascinating to read how a local issue provided broader arguments for or against the vote.
Overall, a great foray into some specific fights for suffrage. I learned about many more woman than the Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and it was great to read about Washington, where I live, and get that specific local insight into the fight. Keeping to a length that felt just long enough, while still doing a deep-dive into every aspect of the movement, and keeping the prose light all combined for a very satisfying read. Sans formatting issues, this would be five stars.

An amazing look back at history and what women had to overcome. A fresh look at their bravery and heroism.

Prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment that (finally) gave females the right to vote in 1920, some of the western states granted suffrage to their female residents. In NO PLACE FOR A WOMAN, Chris Enss provides a straightforward but not overly in depth account of the highlights (and lowlights) of the state-by-state struggles these western women faced while lobbying for suffrage. Not only does Enss provide details on the state-by-state battles, she also includes information about the overall national fight for women’s suffrage. NO PLACE FOR A WOMAN is a good read for anyone wanting to learn the basic history of women’s suffrage in the American West.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book recounts the state-by-state struggle for women's suffrage in the American West. Although the western expansion of women's suffrage is the book's primary focus, it includes substantial background information on the national movement for women's suffrage. This background information is presented in the introduction, as well as through a timeline of important events, short bios on leading suffragettes, and blurbs addressing topics such as on the relationship between the women's suffrage movement and the temperance movement and between the women's suffrage movement and the abolitionist movement. For someone not familiar with the suffrage movement, these aids may be extremely helpful; however, they become annoying for the reader who is well-versed in the topic, as it soon becomes apparent that the author has included very little actual history of women's suffrage in the American West -- most of which is based on secondary sources or on newspaper and journal articles of the time. Based on the bibliography the author does not appear to have done any archival research and offers no analysis of the events discussed. These features also make this narrative read like a textbook written for young adults. I found myself expecting to see questions for discussion at the end of each section. What is impressive about this book is its inclusion of numerous illustrations, not only photographs of the women involved but also pictures of newspaper advertisement that proponents and opponents of suffrage published to advance their respective cause.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone wanting a basic introduction to the suffrage movement with an emphasis on the American West. But I would advise those with a background in this history to look elsewhere for additional reading, as there is very little new that they can glean from this book.

In the mid 1800's, where this book begins, the west was just coming into its own with pioneers making the journey for all kinds of reasons and with all kinds of dreams for the future. This book tells of some of the courageous women that traveled either with or without husbands and how they influenced the fight for woman suffrage throughout the country. It's an interesting look at a part of history that should be well-known but that is sometimes overlooked in our modern day. Through reading it, we can gain an appreciation for those who helped give us the voting rights we enjoy today.

Most of the chapters in this book give a look at the history of how western states got the right to vote for women passed in their constitutions much earlier than the national ratification of the 19th amendment. The women of the west were pioneers who worked alongside their husbands, held positions not normally open to them, sometimes homesteaded on their own, and were generally more involved in matters not seen as women's business simply because of the scarcity of the population. So, many of them believed that they had just as much right as the men to be heard through their votes, and many fought to gain that right both on a state-by-state and a national level. The progress of that fight is depicted so well in this book. We see how each state had its particular struggles and how the women, and men, of the suffrage movement were able to overcome and eventually prevail in their efforts.

In among the history of suffrage, this book provides biographies of some of the well-known and not so well-known figures of the suffrage movement. Their lives were often fascinating and deserve to be brought into the forefront of our modern thought. I'm thankful that the author has chosen to write about them and preserve their memories and their contributions to the suffrage cause.

Also included are many photographs depicting the people and places of the woman suffrage movement which add a pictorial reference to the written text. These photographs help add an extra layer of reality to the narrative and serve as a reminder that these women were real people with real struggles and far less rights than we have now. We owe them a debt of thanks for their hard work.

Bottom line: When I find myself grumbling about all the political advertisements, the party lines that divide families and friends, and all the other discord that seems to happen any time an election rolls around, I'll take a minute to remember that just a hundred years ago, I wouldn't have had a say in the running of the government, and I'll think about this book and be thankful to have read it and gotten a glimpse into the lives of the women who helped lay the foundation for the voting rights I now claim. If you enjoy history or politics, or if you want to learn about a time and its people who had a lasting influence on the world you now live in; you should definitely check out this book. It's a fairly quick read that's packed with information that might just change your perspective the next time you find yourself standing in line to cast your vote.