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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I love Jill Lepore's brand of history writing. She weaves together stories and evidence in a delightful way, making it very easy to read and digest.
In this case, the topic was far more wide-ranging than I expected. I thought it would be primarily about the writer/creator of Wonder Woman, which it is. But it also covers a wide range of topics ancillary to him and to his comic book. Notably, Jill Lepore uses Wonder Woman and his creator's unusual for his time lifestyle to discuss feminism, suffrage, love, and more. If you're looking for more about the origin story of Wonder Woman herself and an analysis of her story, this probably isn't the book for you.
William Moulton Marston is the creator of Wonder Woman, though he wrote under the name Charles Moulton. He was in a secret polyamorous relationship - living with two women (one of them he legally wed) - Elizabeth Holloway and Olive Byrne. He had two children with each, and they were all raised together in the home. There was also a third woman who lived with them on and off. Marston was also the creator of the original lie detector test (though another man replicated it and eventually patented the one used today).
Olive Byrne was the niece of Margaret Sanger. Jill Lepore explores what it means that Margaret Sanger was tangentially involved in the origins of Wonder Woman, and why it was never connected together. I think it's pretty tenuous, but it is interesting to explore how the nascent birth control movement influenced the feminist ideas that Marston wanted to share through Wonder Woman.
Ultimately, it's a reminder that Wonder Woman was a radical figure in the 1940s! She advanced the idea that women and men were equal! She was as strong as men and wouldn't be dominated. Lepore does a great job of connecting early feminism and the suffrage movement with Marston's role and the women in his life and how they influenced him.
Fascinating history, especially if you're willing to put up with all the tangents the author takes us on. I find history to be fun, so I enjoyed it.
In this case, the topic was far more wide-ranging than I expected. I thought it would be primarily about the writer/creator of Wonder Woman, which it is. But it also covers a wide range of topics ancillary to him and to his comic book. Notably, Jill Lepore uses Wonder Woman and his creator's unusual for his time lifestyle to discuss feminism, suffrage, love, and more. If you're looking for more about the origin story of Wonder Woman herself and an analysis of her story, this probably isn't the book for you.
William Moulton Marston is the creator of Wonder Woman, though he wrote under the name Charles Moulton. He was in a secret polyamorous relationship - living with two women (one of them he legally wed) - Elizabeth Holloway and Olive Byrne. He had two children with each, and they were all raised together in the home. There was also a third woman who lived with them on and off. Marston was also the creator of the original lie detector test (though another man replicated it and eventually patented the one used today).
Olive Byrne was the niece of Margaret Sanger. Jill Lepore explores what it means that Margaret Sanger was tangentially involved in the origins of Wonder Woman, and why it was never connected together. I think it's pretty tenuous, but it is interesting to explore how the nascent birth control movement influenced the feminist ideas that Marston wanted to share through Wonder Woman.
Ultimately, it's a reminder that Wonder Woman was a radical figure in the 1940s! She advanced the idea that women and men were equal! She was as strong as men and wouldn't be dominated. Lepore does a great job of connecting early feminism and the suffrage movement with Marston's role and the women in his life and how they influenced him.
Fascinating history, especially if you're willing to put up with all the tangents the author takes us on. I find history to be fun, so I enjoyed it.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
This is more a telling of the creator of wonder woman and it really doesn't even get into wonder woman still the very end of the book, so although long it doesn't go very in depth into wonder woman herself.
This was a great read; I enjoyed every minute of it. I've seen a handful of people remark that Jill Lepore probably knows more about WMM than anyone currently living, and I'm inclined to agree. As an historian, her research is extensive, perhaps even overly so (did we really need more than 300 pages on this? Lepore might as well have gone all out and written WMM's biography—not that I'd mind reading it), and the result comprehensive.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I have never read a comic of Wonder Women before, never even read a comic.
*Radcliffe College started in 1894 - it was supposed to be an annex for Harvard College before Women were accepted. The annex students, all women, were told they could be awarded Harvard degrees, with the string that include $250,000 was raised. The money was obtained only to be told that the dean changed his mind.
*William Moulton Marston was the inventor of the lie detector. A century later it's still in use.
*Martson would have an unusual family life, having two wives essentially, Elizabeth Holloway Martson and Olive Bryne. Elizabeth worked which was a necessary as Marston could not hold a job and Olive would raise the children. This was a secret that they all kept quiet. The children never forgave them.
*Martson, Holloway and Byrne also worked together professionally. Martson listed Holloway as his coauthor. Byrne's work for him was at times secretarial. Their work is so closely tied together, and their roles overlapped that it can be difficult to determine who wrote what
*Wonder Women made her debut in 1941. Wonder Womens bracelets were inspired by Olive Byrne's bracelets. She was also the one who typed away all the earliest scripts too.
*Wonder Women sold like crazy. No one besides Superman and Batman could compete. She would join the Justice Society in 1942. It wasn't exactly triumph, as she was named the society's secretary.
*The strength of women was a theme in the Wonder Women comics. Not a comic book in which Wonder Women appeared in lacked a scene of bondage. In episode after episode Wonder Women is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied and much worse.
*In 1973 the year Wonder Women was named a "symbol of feminist revolt" the Supreme Court issued a ruling legalizing abortion. The aftermath of Roe V Wade narrowed the feminist movement.
*Frye V United States is a landmark in law of evidence and one of the most citied cases in the history of American law. to be "Frye'd" is to have your expert's testimony deemed inadmissible.
*Picturing and talking about women as chained and enslaved were big in feminist literature, a carryover from the 19th century alliance between the suffrage and abolitionist movements.
*In the 1920s psychologists were fascinated by sex. According to behavioralist John B Watson feminist itself was a form of deviance, a feminist was a woman unable to accept that she wasn't a man.
*Between 1900-1930 the percentage of PhDs awarded to women doubled and then for three decades fell. The gains made by women in the beginning of the twentieth century were lost, everywhere as women who had fought their way into colleges and graduate programs found that they were barred from the top ranks of the academy.
*Radcliffe College started in 1894 - it was supposed to be an annex for Harvard College before Women were accepted. The annex students, all women, were told they could be awarded Harvard degrees, with the string that include $250,000 was raised. The money was obtained only to be told that the dean changed his mind.
*William Moulton Marston was the inventor of the lie detector. A century later it's still in use.
*Martson would have an unusual family life, having two wives essentially, Elizabeth Holloway Martson and Olive Bryne. Elizabeth worked which was a necessary as Marston could not hold a job and Olive would raise the children. This was a secret that they all kept quiet. The children never forgave them.
*Martson, Holloway and Byrne also worked together professionally. Martson listed Holloway as his coauthor. Byrne's work for him was at times secretarial. Their work is so closely tied together, and their roles overlapped that it can be difficult to determine who wrote what
*Wonder Women made her debut in 1941. Wonder Womens bracelets were inspired by Olive Byrne's bracelets. She was also the one who typed away all the earliest scripts too.
*Wonder Women sold like crazy. No one besides Superman and Batman could compete. She would join the Justice Society in 1942. It wasn't exactly triumph, as she was named the society's secretary.
*The strength of women was a theme in the Wonder Women comics. Not a comic book in which Wonder Women appeared in lacked a scene of bondage. In episode after episode Wonder Women is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied and much worse.
*In 1973 the year Wonder Women was named a "symbol of feminist revolt" the Supreme Court issued a ruling legalizing abortion. The aftermath of Roe V Wade narrowed the feminist movement.
*Frye V United States is a landmark in law of evidence and one of the most citied cases in the history of American law. to be "Frye'd" is to have your expert's testimony deemed inadmissible.
*Picturing and talking about women as chained and enslaved were big in feminist literature, a carryover from the 19th century alliance between the suffrage and abolitionist movements.
*In the 1920s psychologists were fascinated by sex. According to behavioralist John B Watson feminist itself was a form of deviance, a feminist was a woman unable to accept that she wasn't a man.
*Between 1900-1930 the percentage of PhDs awarded to women doubled and then for three decades fell. The gains made by women in the beginning of the twentieth century were lost, everywhere as women who had fought their way into colleges and graduate programs found that they were barred from the top ranks of the academy.
Not exactly what I expected as this focused more on the life (and many failures) of William Moulton Marston than that of the women who inspired Wonder Woman or the creation of the feminist Amazonian super-heroine. This is a biography of the creator and not truly of the creation. A majority of this book focused on Marston's inability to hold an academic job. And while that led him to a career of writing comics, under the pseudonym Charles Moulton, I felt as though there was too much focus on his failings as an academic and his lie detector, although he apparently did feature the device often in his Wonder Woman stories. The lives of Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne, Marston's wife and partner/second wife who served as inspiration for Wonder Woman, were included within this book as well, it felt as though it was only to service of Moulton Marston's. I more enjoyed learning about them than that of Marston as it became evident that their lives and beliefs were what he used to create Wonder Woman.
Probably a bit less than a 4 but more than a 3. This really is a fascinating history about the creation of Wonder Woman — it really delves into Marston’s life and all of its secrets. There’s a lot of factors I never would have expected as part of the influence of the comic (eg psychology, bondage, etc). The secret keeping and note taking of the Marston family is insane - almost to the point where it’s hard to know what is truth. Similarly, the countless nicknames for the same person make it even more complicated.
The book is a great history of Marston - with parts on Wonder Woman, but isn’t fully what I expected. The history is interesting, but at times hard to follow just given the sheer number of characters involved and the different names used.
The book is a great history of Marston - with parts on Wonder Woman, but isn’t fully what I expected. The history is interesting, but at times hard to follow just given the sheer number of characters involved and the different names used.
It's amazing to me that discussions held 100 years ago are back today. This is a very interesting book about ideas, events and people. I like Jill Lepore's writing style and enjoyed reading this book.
Lepore's examination of Marston and the women in his life was really interesting to read. I think that her writing style being influenced by journalism did not take well to a book of this length. It was hard to sit and read for long periods. That being said the research and content more than made up for it, and once I got through it I loved it.