Customer Reviews

In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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

 

 

Dr. Griffiths has written a thorough, well-researched biography on Elizabeth Cady Stanton that both presents the facts of her life and a rich understanding of the psychology and world-view of this terrifically important woman in American history. Dr. Griffith's prose is fluid, readable, and to the point. I was only sorry that she didn't fully discuss the fact that the Cady family owned at least one slave, Peter Teabout, during Stanton's childhood years. A discussion of this and it's relationship to Stanton's abolitionist sensibilities; her objections to passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution; and the difference between her father as a slave-owner and her cousin, Gerrit Smith, a prominent abolitionist; by a scholar of Dr. Griffith's caliber would have been extremely interesting.

A brilliant book about a brilliant freedom fighter. A must read for advocates of social change and equality. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's life is showed before us in plain and mostly unbiased way. Not enough is talked about in regards to why Stanton was so unhappy with the extension of the right to vote to black men. It could have explained that while that passage was giving (much needed) legal protection to black men, that they only counted for 5% of the population. She advocated for women's rights to vote before the latter because she would instead be enfranchising 50% of the population - from white women, past slaves, native americans etc... For her, women's rights came before every other cause she championed. People ought not forget she was a champion of abolitionism.

I found this book totally mesmerizing. I thought the author did a good job in covering Stanton's later years. She was thorough and honest. I learned a lot and would recommend it to anyone interested in the origins of women's history.

I would reccomend this book but only to someone extremely interested in the subject. If you are looking to be amused-this is not a good choice. This is definately an educational resource to be used to understand this woman's life, not to be interpreted as a cozy novel to curl up by the fire with... but as I said, if you are a real woman's history buff- I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

On the plus side, this book fills a gap by studying in-depth the life of an irrepressible foremother. On the down side, the author refutes nearly every other source on this subject, with suppositions about Stanton's and Anthony's relationship, Henry Blackwell's role in the Train scandal, and Stanton's growing solitude. Who knows? Parts may be true. But I found the book overall to be very negative, looking for dirt under the rug and airing out the dustballs. Take this book with a grain of salt, and be warned that is isn't as uplifting as others of its kind.

Wow! How many synonyms are there for GOOD? Let's see: magnificent, wonderful, amazing, fabulous (and for the teens, totally fab) great, weel, I could go on and on, but hey- just read the book for yourself. Pig out of FAB books, man.