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A Milwaukee Woman's Life on the Left: The Autobiography of Meta Berger

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Meta Schlichting Berger was a Wisconsin wife, mother, schoolteacher, and politician at a time when women's role in public life (including their right to vote) were as contested as they were restricted. Ably edited by Kimberly Swanson, A Milwaukee Woman's Life On The Left is Meta Berger's autobiography and takes us through her transformation from a traditional wife and mother to a political activist who held elective office for thirty years. Married to Victor Berger in 1897, she saw her husband being elected to Congress as their first Socialist member. She was to eventually launch her own political campaign that would place her on the Milwaukee School Board and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. She was an activist in the peace and women's suffrage movements of the day, all while serving as confidant and advisor to her Congressman husband. Her husband was faced with twenty years in prison and denial of his Congressional seat because of his opposition to World War I. Meta helped him to win his eventual vindication before the United States Supreme Court. After her husband's death in 1929, Meta became even more radicalized than her husband ever was and embroiled in left-wing politics during the turbulent decade of the 1930s. A Milwaukee Woman's Life On The Left is a fascinating and informative contribution to women's studies in general, and Wisconsin history in particular.