The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Woman's Rights Movement

Nice readable overview of the 19th-century origins of the movement for women’s rights in the US. A lot of real estate is given to profiles of individual women, one long chapter to the Seneca Falls Convention that kicked off the movement in 1848, and later chapters to internal dynamics and political episodes in the movement over the second half of the century including interactions with anti-slavery and temperance. Having lived in upstate New York at one point, in one of the towns mentioned in this book, and not having been particularly impressed, it’s striking to realize how vital the area once was to the debates that changed a nation. There are no footnotes in the book but there’s a bibliography I look forward to digging into. show more The writing is slightly awkward in places, but the book is stuffed with facts and highly readable. show less

I checked this book out of my local library. I was looking for books that would help me gain a better sense of women in the late 1800's and early 1900's. What an awesome book about the early days of women's rights in the U.S.!

The Birth of the Woman's Rights Movement, the book contains 34 illustrations marshaling through the notable American ladies including the Grimke sisters, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cadt Stanton, and many others. As Gurko writes, on July 1848, five women conversed over tea in a small upstate New York town. The next day, the local newspaper carried their announcement inviting women to attend A Convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.

With 34 illustrations

Politics