Customer Reviews

Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment (Turning Points in History)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

eleanor clift's latest book Founding Sisters is her best yet. it is not only informative and insightful, but also beautifully and eloquently written. i think it is important for women in this country to know our history and to honor those women who fiercely struggled, fought, and were in some cases even martyred so that our voice could someday be heard. for those who find ms. clift's book indolent and her research remiss, they should check again. if they are at all honest with themselves, they must admit that there were a lot of facts stated in this book that we (especially women) absolutely should have known, and because of our own complacent ignorance have never taken the time to explore. we need more women like eleanor clift to remind us of our history and give feminism a much needed resuscitation. this book defines the true meaning of girl power and sisterhood!

What a wonderful book, and by my favorite political commentator. I saw her on the Early Show and she made the book sound so interesting I had to run out and get it. It didn't disappoint. While maybe not as good as Ellis' Founding Brothers, it was nonetheless illuminating, engaging and enriching.

How the people below can condemn it on one mistake and by one line obviously written before the book was even out, is just wrong.

I can tell you how pleased I am with this book. I know there are some people that would rate it simply based on their impression of the writer's television personality and politics, but regardless of where on stands on that, this book was impressive. I've read it, both of my daughters read it, my husband read it... and all loved it. It's some an important and untreated aspect of our history. But best of all, Ms. Clift tells the history in a lively, compelling way... I almost felt like I knew these women and lived in that time period. I highly recommend this. I'll be using it in my classroom next year. I'm a high school teacher.

Too many women do not bother to vote and do not realize how difficult it was to get the right to vote. With this went women's rights also. This was a long time coming and women should realize how hard and long the struggle was.Maybe it should be required reading in high school classes.

I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THE MOVIE BASED ON THIS BOOK. EVERYONE WOMEN SHOULD SEE THIS MOVIE JUST TO SEE HOW THE MEN TREATED WOMEN.. I highly recommend this book to all women just to learn how women were treated in their fight to be enfranchised and allowed to vote under the 14th amendment. Very little is written about the suffrage movement when I was in school in the 1970's. Men treated women as second class citizens from beginning of time and over 60 years later we are still not treated equal today.

"A Customer" writes:

>Yee also notes: "After meticulous research into the available printed documents of the period, [Nell Irvin] Painter has found no evidence to corroborate Gage's 'report' of the speech, particularly from newspapers that likely would have reported such a momentous and controversial event as Gage supposedly memorialized.

Prominent abolitionist and editor Marius Robinson reported on the speech in the June 21, 1851, issue of his newspaper, the "Anti-Slavery Bugle."

He wrote: "One of the most unique and interesting speeches of the convention was made by Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave. It is impossible to transfer it to paper, or convey any adequate idea of the effect it produced upon the audience. Those only can appreciate it who saw her powerful form, her whole-souled, earnest gesture, and listened to her strong and truthful tones. She came forward to the platform and addressing the President said with great simplicity: "May I say a few words?" Receiving an affirmative answer, she proceeded: I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman's rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart - why can't she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, - for we can't take more than our pint'll hold. The poor men seems to be all in confusion, and don't know what to do. Why children, if you have woman's rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they won't be so much trouble. I can't read, but I can hear. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again. The Lady has spoken about Jesus, how he never spurned woman from him, and she was right. When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to him with faith and love and besought him to raise their brother. And Jesus wept and Lazarus came forth. And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and the woman who bore him. Man, where was your part? But the women are coming up blessed be God and a few of the men are coming up with them. But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, he is surely between a hawk and a buzzard."

>The absence of such evidence casts doubt upon whether Truth actually gave the speech and raises the distinct possibility that Gage contrived it.

It seems very odd that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, both of whom were at the convention, would allow this report to appear in their book if it wasn't true. Also, why would Frances D. Gage put this remembrance in her memoir if it never happened? I think it's obvious she rewrote the speech giving it more of southern slave nuance, but that doesn't mean Sojourner Truth didn't give the speech. Clearly she stood up and said something momentous.

It also seems very odd that anyone would give this excellent book only one star based on something as nebulous as this one brief, albeit important, speech. Did you really not find anything of merit in the book or did you just go straight to the index and then sit down to blast Eleanor Cliff?

I guess it would be too much trouble for MS. Cliff to check her facts to see if they are true or lies. God what a left wing fool!

I am surprised to see the "Ain't I a Woman" speech attributed to Sojourner Truth--why did Eleanor Clift not read the definitive biography of Truth, written by Nell Irvin Painter?

We now know that Sojourner Truth did NOT utter those words attributed to her--this is clearly documented in Nell Irvin Painter's 1997 book "Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol."

According to Shirley J. Yee, writing in the Journal of Women's History, (Spring 1998): "Women's historians have routinely cited this [A'rnt I A Woman] speech from 'The History of Woman Suffrage,' published in 1881 and edited by white suffrage advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthoney, and Matilda Joslyn Gage. White feminist Frances Dana Gage had written about the appearance of Truth at the convention. Entitled 'Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage,' her contribution appeared two years before Truth's death in 1883."

Yee also notes: "After meticulous research into the available printed documents of the period, [Nell Irvin] Painter has found no evidence to corroborate Gage's 'report' of the speech, particularly from newspapers that likely would have reported such a momentous and controversial event as Gage supposedly memorialized. The absence of such evidence casts doubt upon whether Truth actually gave the speech and raises the distinct possibility that Gage contrived it."

What kind of research did Clift do, if any, to determine the veracity of this speech?

No, we all do not know that Sojourner Truth never gave that speech.

Better than No-doze. It ain't at Amazon# 1,000,000 for nothing.