Carry A. Nation: Retelling the Life

Religion in North America

by Fran Grace

"A needed and welcome account of Carry Nation's story . . . deserves the highest praise." ―Journal of American History

"Admirably interweaves early 20th-century religious culture, regional politics, the suffrage and temperance movements, and the woman who worked zealously to unite them all." ―Library Journal (starred review)

In her well-received biography of Carry A. Nation, Fran Grace unfolds a story that often contrasts with the common public image of Nation as "Crazy Carry," a bellicose, blue-nosed, man-hating killjoy. Using newly available archival materials and placing Nation in her various historical and cultural contexts, Grace "retells" the crusader's tumultuous life. This complexly woven and delightfully written biography begins the work of recovering Nation's often fascinating, often disturbing life.

Religion in North America―Catherine L. Albanese and Stephen J. Stein, editors

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, American History, Religion, Politics

392 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Joy Matteson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the most fun I've read reading a biography in a long, long time. If you know anything about Carry Nation (maybe if you love Ken Burns docs), you might be tempted to think she's just another crazy early Prohibitionist who hated booze and good fun in the late 19th century. In the hands of religion historian and feminist Fran Grace, this could not be farther from the truth. Yes, she loved to smash (who doesn't, y'all). Yes, she thought she was called by God to smash those bar-rooms and open up those whiskey kegs. But, her religious convictions also inspired the first generation of women who didn't realize that they had power in their own bodies to make change happen. This is incredible to ponder, especially when you realize for centuries, women were ignored in their own homes and abused. Fran Grace doesn't make her into a saint OR someone who was mentally ill; she does an incredible amount of research for first hand primary resources (and some seriously good newspaper footage) to describe this complex, inspiring, and tough woman from Kentucky. I need to go find a hatchet now. Highly recommended.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography does a beautiful job of painting Nation as a product of her times - an extraordinary one, to be sure, but very much a woman in reaction to the circumstances of the society around her. Other biographies mock her, treat her as an oddity, and ignore much of the context of her time, place, and relationship to religion, whereas Grace manages to give the reader a grounding in the America and the Mid-West in which Nation lived. Grace manages to humanize her without idealizing her, and I found it to be very readable and deeply researched.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started out pretty good and then it felt as if the author kept repeating the same stuff in every chapter. What should have been a fast read took forever! It was slow, uninteresting, and redundant.

[Etta Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fran Grace's story of Carry A. Nation, the hatchet-wielding fiery temperance woman, turned me on to biography. I had been a longtime lover of memoir, but I had no idea until reading this account how biography writing is an art. Grace drew me in to the tale of this well-known temperance fighter, depicting a woman determined from her youth and early marriage to right the world in the ways she believe it had wronged her and so many others.

A cradle-to-grave biography, the book does not fail to provide one engaging scene after another that contributes to this heroic story of a woman who moved from Virginia through Missouri into Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas. Here's one more reason why stories of past women's lives need to be excavated and shared.