Customer Reviews

Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists

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

 

 

Before reading this book, I had basically no idea about anything dealing with the Suffrage movement, except that it was Susan B. Anthony who was on a coin (and this was even after taking a college-level US History course). This book is a MUST for any person who wants to get a general overview not only about five of the most influential women in the Suffrage Movement, but also of the movement overall. It doesn't have any "boring" parts, and is all information that everyone should know. I can't recommend it enough!

Jean Baker has provided a fascinating memoir of five amazingly strong women in the fabric of America's history. Through carefully documented and responsibly interpreted research, she gives the reader a clear view into the public and private lives of five of the suffragettes: Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard and Alice Paul. Each of the 5 biographies can be read alone, although a reading of all 5 adds richness and depth to the understanding of the period and the suffrage movement. Definitely a 5-star read! Highly recommended for personal reading or as a required text for college history or women's studies classes.

Recommended companion DVDs: "Iron Jawed Angels" and "Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Not for Ourselves Alone," both available from Amazon.

Sisters offers a nice introduction to a very complex subject matter, however its brevity is also its downfall. The author explores how the personal lives of these women influenced their involvement in the movement, which while fun and captivating to some, offers little to scholars familiar with the suffrage movement and its many, many activists.

This book is very interesting. I love that it does not read like a history book. I have a hard time reading non-fiction but this book reads like a story. I recommend this book to anyone. Not even just the history buffs.

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.

This book was very thought and emotion provoking. A must read for all women. Women must never forget the gargantuan struggle our foremothers endured to gain something so powerful---the right to vote. You'll be appalled at the night of terror these women, up to 70 years of age, endured by hostile cruel men.

The vote is only the beginning of equality, however. Without actually voting, the right to vote serves no purpose.

Last note is that this extremely well-documented book is very open about the uncomfortable topic of the sexual proclivities of some of these suffragists. It was disturbing to me that some of these very Christian women could have lesbian tendencies, but apparently these accounts come directly from letters they wrote to others. Thankfully, it is not a book that argues for or against lesbianism; it just documents the part it played, if any, in these women's lives. God does say in the Bible that women may be the physically weaker sex, but they ARE EQUAL to men in God's sight.

How dare this author for accusing Susan B. Anthony of being a lesbian!
Wear did she get her information?
I have Lynn Sherr's book, "Failer is Imposiable, "and no wear did I find this accusation. As part of the Anthony family, I resent Jean Baker, as I have done Anthony genealogy for over 10 years, and have never found anything about Susan B. Anthony being a lesbian!