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Ellen Chesler
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Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America Paperback – Illustrated, October 16, 2007

by Ellen Chesler (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 22 ratings
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This illuminating biography of Margaret Sanger—the woman who fought for birth control in America—describes her childhood, her private life, her relationships with Emma Goldman and John Reed, her public role, and more.

Margaret Sanger went to jail in 1917 for distributing contraceptives to immigrant women in a makeshift clinic in Brooklyn. She died a half-century later, just after the Supreme Court guaranteed constitutional protection for the use of contraceptives. Now, Ellen Chesler provides an authoritative and widely acclaimed biography of this great emancipator, whose lifelong struggle helped women gain control over their own bodies.

An idealist who mastered practical politics, Sanger seized on contraception as the key to redistributing power to women in the bedroom, the home, and the community. For fifty years, she battled formidable opponents ranging from the US Government to the Catholic Church. Her crusade was both passionate and paradoxical. She was an advocate of female solidarity who often preferred the company of men; an adoring mother who abandoned her children; a socialist who became a registered Republican; a sexual adventurer who remained an incurable romantic. Her comrades-in-arms included Emma Goldman and John Reed; her lovers, Havelock Ellis and H.G. Wells.

Drawing on new information from archives and interviews, Chesler illuminates Sanger’s turbulent personal story as well as the history of the birth control movement. An intimate biography of a visionary rebel, Woman of Valor is also an epic story that extends from the radical movements of pre-World War I to the family planning initiatives of the Great Society. At a time when women’s reproductive and sexual autonomy is once again under attack, this landmark biography is indispensable reading for the generations in debt to Sanger for the freedoms they take for granted.
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  1. Print length
    672 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    October 16, 2007
  4. Dimensions
    6.13 x 1.3 x 9.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1416540768
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1416540762
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Authoritative, readable and rippling with the energy of the life it conveys." -- Daniel J. Kevles, The New York Times Book Review

"The Sanger portrayed by Chesler is compelling, and persuasively counters the tendency of earlier biographers to either eulogize or condemn...Chesler's exhaustive scholarship has yielded not only a fuller picture of Sanger but new knowledge about the history of birth control." -- Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Boston Sunday Globe

"Woman of Valor's chief virtue is a sweeping and authoritative grasp not only of Sanger's life but of the political detail and maneuvering behind it." -- Ruth Brandon, The Washington Post Book World

"Chesler illuminates Sanger's rich personal and public life with a sophisticated understanding of psychology and history, yet the book reads like a good novel." -- Sylvia A. Law, Professor of Law, New York University

"A major contribution to women's history." -- Library Journal

From the Back Cover

Drawing on new information from archives and interviews, Chesler illuminates Margaret Sanger's turbulent personal story as well as the history of the birth control movement. An intimate biography of a visionary rebel, this is also an epic story that is indispensable reading for generations of women who take their reproductive and sexual freedoms for granted.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (October 16, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1416540768
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1416540762
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.74 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 1.3 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 22 ratings

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Ellen Chesler

Ellen Chesler

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
22 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joseph P. Addante
5.0 out of 5 stars Margaret Sanger, courageous, brave, woman's emancipator.
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is an easy to read yet comprehensive history of Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement in the U.S. One of the many things I learned was that in the early part of the 20th century millions of American women died as the result of complications and infections from self-induced abortions. I learned Margaret Sanger was a courageous woman who fought ingrained ignorance her whole life and devoted it to helping woman have control over their own bodies. She is considered one of the great American women of the 20th Century and called by some "the great emancipator" for women.
3 people found this helpful
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Mark Vande Pol
4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a book that lives up to its billing, albeit a captive of its time
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2024
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It is very seldom I encounter a book with such gorgeous writing that it is a pleasure to read, and the NOTES!!! They show me an author who actually does her homework. Outstanding.
Still, the book does have its limitations. Much more is known to us now of the epigenetic consequences of female prenuptual promiscuity. The book ignores completely the counter-thesis to Margaret Sanger's advocacy, especially in the contemporary anthropological work of Joseph Daniel Unwin in his monster 1934 thesis, "Sex and Culture" (what Aldous Huxley deem the most important research of the Century). Nor does it explore where Sanger's interest in Havelock Ellis' writings actually originated at Harvard. She could have saved me some time.
Still, as an exploration into the emotional, economic, intellectual, political, medical, and practical aspects of 19th and early 20th Century birth control, the book is outstanding. I have seldom so enjoyed an exploration into ideas with which I disagree. I would have given it five stars but for its reseach deficiencies, especially given the energy put into supporting its thesis and its quite evident effort to present a balanced analysis. It is otherwise a definitive work, and surely is within its genre.
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Rene 1
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a fair discourse for the conundrom surrounding an energetic woman who sought legal recourse for self-determination and
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2016
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Sanger has been maligned and vilified in the shadow of Catholicism, politics and male fear of women's abilities and contributions . Chesler seeks to right the scales of truth, documentation and justice. A worthy, scholarly read. Time lines are revisited to encompass world changes and complexities. Pay attention as dates change across the chapters that follow action and ideology.
2 people found this helpful
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Mary Ann Oakley
4.0 out of 5 stars but it's a very good account of a most interesting woman who made a ...
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2015
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Very thorough and well documented. At times it gets a bit bogged down with details, but it's a very good account of a most interesting woman who made a huge contribution to reproductive health.
2 people found this helpful
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tabascocat1994
1.0 out of 5 stars Hitler would be proud
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2021
A necessary read for any racist eugenicist pig, right up there with Mein Kampf.
2 people found this helpful
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Heinrich
5.0 out of 5 stars thank you
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2015
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item arrived in excellent condition
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Beverly Diehl
4.0 out of 5 stars She Was Indeed a Woman of Valor
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2014
Meticulously researched and footnoted, this somewhat ponderous tome (about 670 pages including the notes and index) does not make for a quick beach read. It's fascinating to learn how very many of the rights modern women take for granted come from the work of this brave and dedicated woman, who began the movement and started the clinics that eventually morphed into Planned Parenthood, both in the USA and internationally.

People - even doctors - didn't even TALK about the phrase (ssssh) BIRTH CONTROL a hundred years ago. Sanger changed that, brought an awareness of the need to offer women reproductive choices other than abstinence, too many babies, or illegal and risky abortions.

Sanger's reputation has been much besmirched in the last few decades by those who hate that women are making their own choices as to when - or whether to become mothers. As Chesler presents her, Sanger was far from perfect; she made enemies as well as friends and supporters. She was loath to give up the glory/credit for work that others joined in as well. (Sanger may have been one of the earliest pioneers of name branding.)

Redheaded, witty and attractive, she did not believe in monogamy (at least for herself) and engaged in countless affairs, including one with writer H.G. Wells, somehow managing it that none of her men became jealous of her other lovers or husbands; they were all happy, or at least content, having a tiny bit of her time and attention. Whether you believe this disgustingly immoral or not, it's still an amazing feat for anyone to pull off. She was not a good mother, neglecting her children for the cause of B.C.

But she was not a supporter of Nazism, race eugenics, or racism - those are all LIES propagated by those with an axe to grind. She wasn't even really in favor of abortion, though she grudgingly agreed that in some cases there was a medical necessity.

This book will inform you of all you ever wanted to learn about Margaret Sanger (and more), and if you have a question or wonder how or why the author interpreted something, it's all deeply footnoted. The ending feels a bit rushed; perhaps because the author was conscious of it already being a very long book, or perhaps because Sanger made less news and had fewer letters and interviews in her declining years following several heart attacks. Worth the read, for anyone interested in women's history.
5 people found this helpful
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