Victoria Woodhull's Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and the Popular Press in Nineteenth-Century America [Hardcover]

Amanda Frisken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2004

Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president, forced her fellow Americans to come to terms with the full meaning of equality after the Civil War. A sometime collaborator with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, yet never fully accepted into mainstream suffragist circles, Woodhull was a flamboyant social reformer who promoted freedom, especially freedom from societal constraints over intimate relationships. This much we know from the several popular biographies of the nineteenth-century activist. But what we do not know, as Amanda Frisken reveals, is how Woodhull manipulated the emerging popular media and fluid political culture of the Reconstruction period in order to accomplish her political goals.

As an editor and public speaker, Woodhull demanded that women and men be held to the same standards in public life. Her political theatrics brought the topic of women's sexuality into the public arena, shocking critics, galvanizing supporters, and finally locking opposing camps into bitter conflict over sexuality and women's rights in marriage. A woman who surrendered her own privacy, whose life was grist for the mills of a sensation-mongering press, she made the exposure of others' secrets a powerful tool of social change. Woodhull's political ambitions became inseparable from her sexual nonconformity, yet her skill in using contemporary media kept her revolutionary ideas continually before her peers. In this way Woodhull contributed to long-term shifts in attitudes about sexuality and the slow liberation of marriage and other social institutions.

Using contemporary sources such as images from the "sporting news," Frisken takes a fresh look at the heyday of this controversial women's rights activist, discovering Woodhull's previously unrecognized importance in the turbulent climate of Radical Reconstruction and making her a useful lens through which to view the shifting sexual mores of the nineteenth century.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Covers all facets . . . of Woodhull's life, and much more."—Journal of American History

"Frisken provides fresh insight into Woodhull's significance to American culture by focusing on her skillful manipulation of an emerging popular media rather than on the controversy surrounding her exploits. . . [A] persuasively argued work."—American Historical Review

About the Author

Amanda Frisken teaches American studies at the State University of New York, Old Westbury.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (May 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812237986
• ISBN-13: 978-0812237986
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,926,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful treatment of Woodhull's influence on 19th C., October 2, 2004

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Victoria Woodhull's Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and the Popular Press in Nineteenth-Century America (Hardcover)

Victoria Woodhull was one of the most outrageous and most influential of the 19th century social reformers of the United States. Yet today many people do not know who she is.

This book, which is based on Amanda Frisken's doctoral dissertation takes a detailed look at the most important period of Woodhull's career while glossing over the periods before and after. Another interesting aspect of the work is that it uses primarily the reports published in men's illustrated newspapers of the time, called sporting news, as a source. Other sources are used to provide a rich and detailed picture of Woodhull's life, beliefs, and activities, but the unique perspective of this work comes from this original use of these popular newspapers as a source for images and opinions about Woodhull.

There may be better biographies that look at her whole life, but for those interested in Woodhull's impact on the USA, this is a great book to read. Included are her free love sexual philosophy, her campaign for president of the United States, her brokerage firm on Wall Street, her newspaper, her influence on American socialism, and her leadership of the Spiritualism community. There are tons of footnotes, but the text can be read without reference to them so it has relevance to both the popular and the scholarly reader.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars OnWard and UpWard!, April 24, 2006

By 

Victoria lynn Weston "Victoria" (VictorialynnWeston.com) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Victoria Woodhull's Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and the Popular Press in Nineteenth-Century America (Hardcover)

While I've just learned of this book, I applaud the writer for investing time on the subject of Victoria Woodhull. She was the first woman to run for US President in 1872. However, she believed in "free love" not in the practice of sexual encounters but defined as "once one falls out of love with their respective lover or husband, one should be free to explore other love relationships." If Woodhull had encountered the sexual liasions some writers have penned, she would have fallen to the social sexual diseases and unwanted pregancies.

I recommend anyone interested in Victoria Woodhull to watch the first and only documentary, America's Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull. Captivating and revealing interviews include feminist icon, Gloria Steinem. Woodhull's own words are spoken by actress Kate Capshaw. A new DVD to be released in 2006.