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The Secret History of Wonder Woman Hardcover – Deckle Edge, October 28, 2014

by
Jill Lepore (Author)
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Jill Lepore (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 262 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf; 1St Edition edition (October 28, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385354045
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385354042
  • Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.5 x 9.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (262 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPrepare to be surprised, amazed, and alarmed by the people who created and shaped this comic icon.
By Peter J. Ward VINE VOICE on September 24, 2014
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Here is the internal dialog I had going at one point while reading this book.

Me: "So the inventor of Wonder Woman was a psychology PhD who also invented the first lie detector."

Also me: "Neat."

Me: "Get this, he was also a pretty hardcore first-wave feminist and based a lot of Wonder Woman's stories and characteristics on Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer."

Also me: "That's pretty cool."

Me: "He also lived with three women, had children with two of them, and balanced this unusual lifestyle fairly gracefully in way that his wife, Halloway, could fulfill her ambition to maintain a full-time job, while his mistress, Olive Bynre, could do what she wanted and raise the kids, while the third woman, Hurston, could come and go as she pleased. I should mention that Byrne wore thick silver bracelets, while Hurston and he were really into bondage."

Also me: "That's pretty crazy, I mean especially for the early twentieth century..."

Me: "You're still not getting it: kick-ass first-wave feminist sensibilities, thick silver bracelets, bondage, and making people tell the truth."

Also me: "Oh God, that's Wonder Woman's whole gig, truth-telling lasso and all. Wow."

So if after that little exchange you find yourself intrigued instead of bored, check this book out. It really is more of a biography of William Moulton Marston (WW's creator) than of the character, but it really is pretty interesting and naturally puts Wonder Woman's development into a more complete context. And the detailed research that went into digging this story out of DECADES of deliberate obfuscation is simply amazing.Read more ›
8 Comments 134 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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4.0 out of 5 starsMostly a Marston Biography
By Buffy on August 27, 2014
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
This is a scholarly look at the history and origins of the Wonder Woman character created by William Moulton Marston. The book goes quite a bit into Marston's background and the social conditions of the times. I would say that up to page 185 the book is essentially a biography of Marston and his family. There are not that many illustrations and most are black & white snapshots from the Marston family album.

For me to the book gets interesting on page 186 (in 1940) when Marston suggests to DC Comics that they need a female Superman character and in February 1941 he submits the first installment of "Suprema, the Wonder Woman" which was shortly changed to just "Wonder Woman." Pages 190 to 298 cover the history of Wonder Woman roughly to the mid 1970s and updates us along the way about the Marston family.

Pages 299 to 392 are mostly footnotes. Yes, a lot of footnotes.

The most entertaining parts of the book are when they talk directly about the Wonder Woman character and influences or back story that you might not know. There's too much biographical information about Marston and related family members. For comic art fans this is definitely not an art book. There are not that many comic book illustrations and it feels mostly like a text book. There are nuggets here and there that I liked and for that I give it four stars. But this is not really the "Secret History of Wonder Woman" as I would have expected--that's only about 108 pages of the total book. Still if you love this character it's worth reading. For casual fans this is not recommended.
2 Comments 68 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe Most Unique Character In Comic Book History - And Wonder Woman
By Dirk Drudgler VINE VOICE on August 19, 2014
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
With "The Secret History of Wonder Woman" Jill Lepore has greatly strengthened the oft ignored legacy of comic books as an important agent of cultural change in the 20th century. Since their inception in the early 1930's as collections of comic strips through the billion dollar mega-films of today, comic books have been beloved and loathed like no other media.

At their peak in the 1940s a comic book might have sold 2 million or more copies. Each single comic was estimated to be read by as many as 6 people. At any one time there were thought to be 100,000,000 comic being read. These were numbers delightful to publishers and fans but terrifying to educators, politicians, scientists and parents. The concern from the "authorities" is somewhat justified. Kids were devouring comics and with the astronomic readership numbers it was hard to imagine how generations of young minds were being shaped by the illustrated insanity in their pages.

William Moulton Marston was a man made for this exploding cacophony of four color madness. His creation of Wonder Woman became the perfect storm for so many cultural, scientific and political upheavals that a reasonable argument can be made had the Amazonian Princess never been born America would be a different place.

Marston dumped his bohemian and erratic life experience as a scientist (the creator of the lie detector), a psychologist, a bigamist (sort of), a fetishist and an ardent feminist into the development of Wonder Woman with the clear intention of influencing the direction of popular culture. Lepore's excellently researched and fully supported premise is he succeeded in doing just that.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsA MUST READ for Wonder Woman fans!

MUST BE READ! I was shocked and enthralled by the history of Wonder Woman. I've already passed the book on to a freind.

Published 14 days ago by Amanda C.
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Amazing Tale

WOW - this is one of those long complicated tales that shows just how convoluted humans can be.

The link between the suffragettes of early 1900s, the Birth Control... Read more

Published 26 days ago by Kat Jordan
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Enjoyed, could have been longer with more info about wife.

Published 27 days ago by June A. McGrath
2.0 out of 5 starsJust could not get into this.

The subject matter was interesting, but the book just read as a string of facts. Very hard to keep plodding through.

Published 1 month ago by John Seymour
5.0 out of 5 starsAn amazing work and story not only of the origin of ...

An amazing work and story not only of the origin of how Wonder Woman came to grace the pages of comic books but also of the incredibly complex man who created her. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Eric Shoars
5.0 out of 5 starsExtremely well researched and a fascinating true story of the ...

Extremely well researched and a fascinating true story of the origin of the Wonder Woman comic book and the background behind her "powers."

Published 1 month ago by Glenn Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars... it to be too superficial and did not really enjoy reading it

I found it to be too superficial and did not really enjoy reading it. Living through that part of history probably colored my reaction.

Published 1 month ago by JBTucson
2.0 out of 5 starsNot well written - would not recommd investing your time or money.

Heard the author interviewed on radio and it sounded fascinating. Reading the book, it definitely has interesting themes but they are not well narrated at all. Read more

Published 2 months ago by MS
5.0 out of 5 stars... this as a gift for my sister and she loved it!

Got this as a gift for my sister and she loved it!

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 starsIt felt like this book lacked direction

It felt like this book lacked direction. Or maybe focus. Lots of interesting tidbits, but it felt like it was missing something.

Published 2 months ago by Poindextrix

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