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Title details for The Woman's Hour by Elaine Weiss - Available

The Woman's Hour

The Great Fight to Win the Vote

by Elaine Weiss
Tavia Gilbert
Audiobook
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"Both a page-turning drama and an inspiration for every reader"—Hillary Rodham Clinton

Soon to Be a Major Television Event

The nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history: the ratification of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote.

"With a skill reminiscent of Robert Caro, [Weiss] turns the potentially dry stuff of legislative give-and-take into a drama of courage and cowardice."—The Wall Street Journal
"Weiss is a clear and genial guide with an ear for telling language ... She also shows a superb sense of detail, and it's the deliciousness of her details that suggests certain individuals warrant entire novels of their own... Weiss's thoroughness is one of the book's great strengths. So vividly had she depicted events that by the climactic vote (spoiler alert: The amendment was ratified!), I got goose bumps."—Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"—women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel's, and the Bible.
Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman's Hour is an inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War, and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 6, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525532446
      • File size: 474307 KB
      • Duration: 16:28:08

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1250
    • Text Difficulty: 9-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In her introduction, author Elaine Weiss frames a pivotal moment in the tumultuous saga of American women's suffrage in the early twentieth century. In 1920, Tennessee sits poised to become the majority state needed for federal ratification of the 19th amendment. Narrator Tavia Gilbert's portrayals of opposition activists, politicians, and proponents of universal voting rights swell with the weight of their moral convictions. Her subtle Tennessee drawl and East Coast accents distinguish local players from national activists and special interest groups. Despite her sympathetic tone for the suffragists, Weiss doesn't hesitate to discuss the complex dynamics and pervasive racism among groups for and against the amendment. While listeners know the end result, they'll be swept up by Gilbert's impassioned performance nonetheless. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 6, 2017
      Despite the story’s foregone conclusion, historian Weiss (Fruits of Victory) orchestrates a page-turning reconstruction of the last push to ratify the 19th Amendment in Tennessee in 1920. The drama reaches hair-raising heights in the last half of the book as support for the so-called “suffs” falls away under pressure from corporate lobbyists, outraged “antis,” and Tennessee’s unique state constitution. Weiss nimbly organizes a large ensemble of suffragettes, protesters, and politicians, and she smoothly punctuates her scenes of high-stakes action with history of the recent world war and the 70-year battle for legalizing votes for women. Weiss doesn’t flinch from depicting the political machinations on all sides. If suffragette leaders Carrie Catt of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and Sue White of Alice Paul’s Women’s Party get more attention than Josephine Pearson and the antis, it is perhaps because the anti tactics of bribes, threats, intimidation, ruses, liquor, and relentless appeals to racism are less moving than the suffs’ pleas for real democracy. Readers will find in the political landscape of 1920 features familiar today: corporate shaping of legislation, bitter partisanship, and the intense effort by some groups to obstruct what looks from most angles like simple justice. Weiss’s remarkably entertaining work of scholarship provides a thorough and timely examination of a shining moment in the ongoing fight to achieve a more perfect union. Photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1250
  • Text Difficulty:9-12

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