jaclynday 's review for:

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

5.0

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I was delighted by this book. Lepore couldn’t have found a more thrilling backstory to explore. The feminist talking points, suffragette connections, and social/cultural issues (birth control, abortion, a woman’s right to work, “having it all,” sex education) intertwined with the almost unbelievable biography of William Moulton Marston, former professor, Harvard-educated psychologist, inventor of the lie detector, and creator of Wonder Woman, makes for completely addictive reading. This is not so much an unpacking of Wonder Woman’s origin story, but an unpacking of Marston and how his life influenced the creation of the most popular female superhero. The book focuses almost solely on Marston, including his secret home life—he had three wives, essentially, and they lived together with all their children. Marston, who at one point put out a press release stating that women would rise to world domination within a thousand years, used Wonder Woman as a platform for his liberal cultural and social beliefs. He also alluded to his own personal experiences in the comic (see: Wonder Woman’s prodigious use of lie detectors). And, most importantly, Marston used Margaret Sanger, related to one of his family members, as the primary model for the Wonder Woman character and her adventures. Sanger’s work as an advocate for birth control and women’s rights greatly informed Marston’s feminist perspective for the comic. This impeccably researched, very readable book was nearly perfect. I loved it.