Customer Reviews

The Almanac of Women and Minorities in American Politics 2002

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Women and Minorities in American Politics

An impressive collection of information. From the very first paragraph, that a women voted in the New World in 1655, yes 1655, in the colonies by right of land ownership, to the last modest note, requests for additional information, it is a mine of golden information. There is information on women, nationalities, there are lists of first in the nation, first states and first women. This is undoubtedly a book that all researchers into gender and minority issues will want to reference and likely have on hand.

In addition to being informative it is well written with a sly sense of humor that will appeal in sometimes an appalling way. Discover the only congressmen be eaten by wild animals, he was not in office at the time. More relevantly he was working as a coal miner when it happened. That may not be such a bad change of occupation. Discover which state first allowed women to vote and why elected officials, all men, revoked their privilege.

Sadly it seems too small, for a nation over 200 years old we can only list 300 pages of women and minorities in politics. It should be a long as Who's Who.

Indispensable for answering those political trivia questions that float into awareness late at night. Who WAS the first [woman, African American, Hispanic, Asian, gay/lesbian] to hold important office in a particular locale? The answers are in this book. Knowing the names, times and places, it's fascinating to imagine what it must have been like for these courageous American political pioneers.