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Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism

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The best thing about Golden Cables of Sympathy is that it introduces many more questions than it answers. The real historians who'll review this book will praise its scope (75 years, dozens of countries and the works of hundreds of women), its research (McFadden visited libraries on three continents, and even went so far as to search an Irish courthouse to uncover the death certificate of Anna Doyle Wheeler, whose date of death had been lost), and its indisputable place in women's history. But I more appreciate the fact that Golden Cables of Sympathy will open doors for many college students. Undergraduate history majors and master's candidates will find a hundred topics that beg for further research and analysis. Golden Cables of Sympathy treats many of the "stars" of women's history (George Sand, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Harriet Martineau and others), but students will profit more from learning for the first time about Ernestine Rose, Phoebe Palmer, Anna Knight and more who were absolutely part of the developing women's movement; they influenced, assisted, argued with, changed and were changed by those with more familiar names. McFadden's book (and the depth of her research), will surely generate more discovery, and her research lays the groundwork for a generation of great student work. Read this book for pleasure, but read first for inspiration.