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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
The title is a mislead: Wonder Woman is an ancillary feature in the story of Olive Byrne and Elizabeth Holloway Marston and their shared husband William Moulton Marston. (A third woman whose name I can’t remember was also a frequent element of their home life.) While the background on Marston as a (n occasionally pseudo) psychologist and how that led to elements of Wonder Woman’s abilities and trademark beliefs and weapons is interesting, the most compelling parts of the history were really those about Olive Byrne. She had a fascinating position in the home, as a writer, as a mother, as a feminist directly related to Margaret Sanger and Ethel Byrne (her mother). I think Sanger gets off easy—her crusades for birth control are chronicled but her interest in eugenics is never once mentioned. Elizabeth Holloway gets a bit short shrift in the later years simply because she was the primary breadwinner for a family of four kids, 3-4 adults, and a menagerie of pets, and was therefore understandably busy and less in the documentary record, but her early education and frustrated ambition is a more interesting narrative than Marston’s professional failures and peccadilloes. I enjoy Lepore’s writing immensely and the fact that it took me a loooooong time to finish this was more due to life and health stuff than my interest in it. That said, Byrne and Holloway are really the true points of fascination for me in this over Marston and even my beloved Diana Prince.
An absolutely fascinating look at the last century of feminism in the U.S., from the suffragist movement to birth control (including a LOT more about Margaret Sanger than I ever learned in my Gender/Women/Sexuality Studies courses in college) to free love and that ever-continuing question, "can women have it all?" I went into this book knowing very little about Wonder Woman, let alone its feminist origins, but Lepore does a fantastic job uncovering the unexpected background -- and revealing just how far we *haven't* come in the past 100 years. A must-read.
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Don’t let the three stars scare you away from reading this. It was a very fascinating read for many reasons. BUT each fascinating section was fallowed by single line of facts being listed that I really could care less about, one after another and was hard to hold my interest during those moments. They were short lived, a page at a time at most, but the interesting was just as short, alternating back and forth.
This book is about the creator of Wonder Woman, he lived quite the interesting life. I mean, extremely, especially for the times he lived in. But the most interesting for me was the way woman were viewed in the 1920’s and on and the fight for freedom and even birth control. The whole book follows the feminism and the fight for and against. In the book they list direct quotes by very influential men about how woman should be handled, weather it was keeping woman away from a college or only be allowed an education to make her a more interesting wife! I knew how difficult life was, but at the same time, I didn’t really know.
This really was a great read, great for anyone who is fascinated by history; despite the hard to stay awake reading every few paragraphs. Skim through the boring, read the fascinating and you will be pleased you took a chance.
This book is about the creator of Wonder Woman, he lived quite the interesting life. I mean, extremely, especially for the times he lived in. But the most interesting for me was the way woman were viewed in the 1920’s and on and the fight for freedom and even birth control. The whole book follows the feminism and the fight for and against. In the book they list direct quotes by very influential men about how woman should be handled, weather it was keeping woman away from a college or only be allowed an education to make her a more interesting wife! I knew how difficult life was, but at the same time, I didn’t really know.
This really was a great read, great for anyone who is fascinated by history; despite the hard to stay awake reading every few paragraphs. Skim through the boring, read the fascinating and you will be pleased you took a chance.
More than a biography of the creator of Wonder Woman, I enjoyed the lessons on early feminism and suffragists. William Moulton Marston was a paradox, preaching the wonders of women and how they should rule the world, while dominating his household of wife + 2 mistresses, living off of them and getting his way every step of the way.
The book was somewhat repetitive and too detailed, but overall fascinating!
The book was somewhat repetitive and too detailed, but overall fascinating!
"Either hide this well or destroy it. It was the family motto."
William Moulton Marston lived a funny old life. Not only was he the inventor of the Wonder Woman, one of my favourite superheroes, as well as the lie detector, but he managed to keep the most confusing family unit in the world running (and secret!) up until his death at age 53. It consisted of a three women, four children, and a lot of pets. I guess the hardest part of this biography for me was trying to wrap my head around the women in his life, how they felt in relation to each other, if they really loved one another (Holloway named her daughter after Olive and tried her best to protect the truth of her relationship to Bill from the world) and how they felt about their predicament. They were amazing women, the highlights of this biography for me. I loved reading about Olive's Mother and Aunt in particular, the pioneers of planned parenthood and the movement for birth control.
The biography really taught me a lot about Wonder Woman. Lepore doesn't shy away from the stories Marston wrote and their problematic aspects - the bondage (although Marston tried /really/ hard to justify this), the racism and the lack of women contributing to both the drawing and writing process. It was so interesting to learn about Diana Prince's roots in both the suffragette and feminist movement, and how she grew. For me, one of the most heartbreaking parts of this story was what was done with Marston's creations after he died - Holloway being ousted from the creative process, wonder woman being stripped of her powers, and his lie detector being used to remove homosexuals from civil service. They really managed to do away with all the best parts of Marston's inventions.
I really enjoyed this book. It was so thorough, and I liked that Lepore never seemed too bias. If anything, I only noticed a bias in her absolute love for Sadie Elizabeth Holloway. Which I can't fault, because I too love Sadie Elizabeth Holloway. A great book in all. I considered deducting points because Marston was, perhaps foolishly, kind of a hero to me going into this book, and I felt let down by him more than once. But it's okay, because that's not Lepore's fault. And now that I've finished reading it, I have new heroes in Elizabeth Holloway, Olive Byrne, Ethel Byrne, Margaret Sanger and the many wonderful woman who helped create the Diana Prince I know and love today.
William Moulton Marston lived a funny old life. Not only was he the inventor of the Wonder Woman, one of my favourite superheroes, as well as the lie detector, but he managed to keep the most confusing family unit in the world running (and secret!) up until his death at age 53. It consisted of a three women, four children, and a lot of pets. I guess the hardest part of this biography for me was trying to wrap my head around the women in his life, how they felt in relation to each other, if they really loved one another (Holloway named her daughter after Olive and tried her best to protect the truth of her relationship to Bill from the world) and how they felt about their predicament. They were amazing women, the highlights of this biography for me. I loved reading about Olive's Mother and Aunt in particular, the pioneers of planned parenthood and the movement for birth control.
The biography really taught me a lot about Wonder Woman. Lepore doesn't shy away from the stories Marston wrote and their problematic aspects - the bondage (although Marston tried /really/ hard to justify this), the racism and the lack of women contributing to both the drawing and writing process. It was so interesting to learn about Diana Prince's roots in both the suffragette and feminist movement, and how she grew. For me, one of the most heartbreaking parts of this story was what was done with Marston's creations after he died - Holloway being ousted from the creative process, wonder woman being stripped of her powers, and his lie detector being used to remove homosexuals from civil service. They really managed to do away with all the best parts of Marston's inventions.
I really enjoyed this book. It was so thorough, and I liked that Lepore never seemed too bias. If anything, I only noticed a bias in her absolute love for Sadie Elizabeth Holloway. Which I can't fault, because I too love Sadie Elizabeth Holloway. A great book in all. I considered deducting points because Marston was, perhaps foolishly, kind of a hero to me going into this book, and I felt let down by him more than once. But it's okay, because that's not Lepore's fault. And now that I've finished reading it, I have new heroes in Elizabeth Holloway, Olive Byrne, Ethel Byrne, Margaret Sanger and the many wonderful woman who helped create the Diana Prince I know and love today.
A fascinating story, but less focused on Wonder Woman herself than I was expecting. I was surprised by how much of the book I got through before her creation. All the information about her existence after the creator's death in the late 1940s was packed into the epilogue. Maybe the book should have been billed as a biography of him, rather than a history of Wonder Woman. A worthwhile read nonetheless as he and his family lived fascinating lives. I especially enjoyed the insights into the suffrage movement and early 20th century feminism.
Jill Lepore is an incredible researcher. She has pulled together information from a huge list of public archives, as well as many private collections that haven't been previously published.
This book reads only slightly more engagingly than a research paper.
New people are introduced with no immediate explanation of why we are learning about who they are. I think I would have preferred an introduction and then work backwards to how they got there, rather than starting at the beginning with each new relevant person.
We are presented with a different perspective on the feminist movement's extensive history, since that is the real context of the creation Wonder Woman. I think in order to keep her focus narrow on the creation, many of the later years of Wonder Woman publications are summarized in just a few paragraphs.
The audiobook is read capably, but without flair. She sometimes tries to do voices, but I mostly rolled my eyes at them. However, I recommend against the audiobook because there are SO MANY pictures and comics and things to look at that just aren't conveyed in the audio.
I was dismayed at first at how long my kindle predicted it would take me to read the book, but when I realized that fully half of the pages are notes and citations, I was energized and able to finish the book in only a few days.
I recommend this for people who like reading non-fiction history books. It's certainly not a perspective found in most histories!
This book reads only slightly more engagingly than a research paper.
New people are introduced with no immediate explanation of why we are learning about who they are. I think I would have preferred an introduction and then work backwards to how they got there, rather than starting at the beginning with each new relevant person.
We are presented with a different perspective on the feminist movement's extensive history, since that is the real context of the creation Wonder Woman. I think in order to keep her focus narrow on the creation, many of the later years of Wonder Woman publications are summarized in just a few paragraphs.
The audiobook is read capably, but without flair. She sometimes tries to do voices, but I mostly rolled my eyes at them. However, I recommend against the audiobook because there are SO MANY pictures and comics and things to look at that just aren't conveyed in the audio.
I was dismayed at first at how long my kindle predicted it would take me to read the book, but when I realized that fully half of the pages are notes and citations, I was energized and able to finish the book in only a few days.
I recommend this for people who like reading non-fiction history books. It's certainly not a perspective found in most histories!