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A review by torlin_keru
Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist by Kathleen Barry
4.0
3.5 stars.
As a woman, I feel like this was a very valuable read for me. I was surprised that there weren't more books out there about Susan B. Anthony (this is the most recent one I could find that wasn't written for children).
The first bit was pretty academic and read like a college lecture, but as the author warmed to the subject, I was more engaged and actively interested in the subject matter.
I enjoyed learning about Susan B. Anthony and the early women's rights movement. I didn't realize how intertwined it was with the abolitionist movement (up to the Civil War), and I enjoyed learning about the abolitionist movement from a different perspective.
The author is very pro-Anthony; in her discussion of the controversies surrounding Anthony, she always takes Anthony's side. Anthony was so dedicated to the women's cause that sometimes it manifested as being indifferent to other causes (abolition, workers' rights, etc) and other times manifested in ways that made people from "respectable" society shun her (eg. when she defended "fallen" women as being victims of male dominance. Some of the stories are pretty heartbreaking).
Wyoming territory enfranchising women is not mentioned chronologically, but 20 years later when they become a state, and only one paragraph is dedicated to it. I was surprised that the author didn't directly reveal Anthony's thoughts and feelings about the four states that enfranchised women before her death. I believe it was important to her, but the only evidence of it in the book is the American flag pin that she wore. It only had 4 stars (one for each of the states with women's suffrage).
Some of the horrors against women I learned about in this book really brought home to me how poorly women were LEGALLY treated. I knew a lot of the things, like not being allowed to own property, not having the right to vote, etc, but I had no idea of the institutional disregard for women, especially poor women, and their safety.
I think it could have benefited from another editing read-through (there are some strangely worded sentences and a misspelled word) and I felt that the author may have given a biased or cherry picked interpretation of the facts, but I also feel like she gave us a valuable point of view of history that is often overlooked. I am amazed that people today do not talk of how women were oppressed and exploited, though I am glad that women do raise awareness of our current issues.
As a woman, I feel like this was a very valuable read for me. I was surprised that there weren't more books out there about Susan B. Anthony (this is the most recent one I could find that wasn't written for children).
The first bit was pretty academic and read like a college lecture, but as the author warmed to the subject, I was more engaged and actively interested in the subject matter.
I enjoyed learning about Susan B. Anthony and the early women's rights movement. I didn't realize how intertwined it was with the abolitionist movement (up to the Civil War), and I enjoyed learning about the abolitionist movement from a different perspective.
The author is very pro-Anthony; in her discussion of the controversies surrounding Anthony, she always takes Anthony's side. Anthony was so dedicated to the women's cause that sometimes it manifested as being indifferent to other causes (abolition, workers' rights, etc) and other times manifested in ways that made people from "respectable" society shun her (eg. when she defended "fallen" women as being victims of male dominance. Some of the stories are pretty heartbreaking).
Wyoming territory enfranchising women is not mentioned chronologically, but 20 years later when they become a state, and only one paragraph is dedicated to it. I was surprised that the author didn't directly reveal Anthony's thoughts and feelings about the four states that enfranchised women before her death. I believe it was important to her, but the only evidence of it in the book is the American flag pin that she wore. It only had 4 stars (one for each of the states with women's suffrage).
Some of the horrors against women I learned about in this book really brought home to me how poorly women were LEGALLY treated. I knew a lot of the things, like not being allowed to own property, not having the right to vote, etc, but I had no idea of the institutional disregard for women, especially poor women, and their safety.
I think it could have benefited from another editing read-through (there are some strangely worded sentences and a misspelled word) and I felt that the author may have given a biased or cherry picked interpretation of the facts, but I also feel like she gave us a valuable point of view of history that is often overlooked. I am amazed that people today do not talk of how women were oppressed and exploited, though I am glad that women do raise awareness of our current issues.