"Eleanor Rathbone cut her political teeth in the suffrage movement in Liverpool, spent two decades crafting social reforms for poor women and children, and was for seventeen years the most effective woman member of the House of Commons. Remembered today for her long and successful campaign for children's allowances and for her brilliant contributions to feminist and economic thought, she also played a critical role in imperial policymaking and in the opposition to appeasement. The last decade of her life was given to strenuous efforts to rescue Spanish republicans and Jews threatened by Hitler's rise to power."--BOOK JACKET.