One Half the People: The Fight for Woman Suffrage

by Anne Firor Scott, Andrew M. Scott

This brief but authoritative analysis of the woman suffrage movement by an historian and a political scientist should be of interest to students as well as specialists. Well-selected documents illustrate the interpretation in the text and enhance the value of the book as an effective teaching tool. Political historians, too often neglectful of this topic will find the work highly useful.

92 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Anne Firor Scott, a pioneer historian of American women, was W. K. Boyd Professor Emerita of History at Duke University. Scott joined Duke's history department in 1961 on a visiting appointment. Nineteen years later she was named William K. Boyd Professor of History and appointed chair of the department. Professor Scott was the first woman to chair the Duke history department, and was also the first professor at Duke to include women's scholarship in her teaching and research. She was educated in her home state at the University of Georgia, as well as at Northwestern University and Radcliffe College. In addition to her tenure at Duke, she taught at Haverford College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews

[Lian (Ellen) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first half of the book gives a brief but vivid history of American suffrage. It included the important things that people need to know about American women's suffrage, and it is told chronologically. As I am reading it, my thoughts flow with the story the whole time. I almost teared down at the chapter of victory. This may give you a clue how well this is actually written.

The second half of the part are primary documents. Each of them has a brief explanation of what it is and who wrote it. I really enjoyed this part, it allowed me to have a peek on what it was like back a hundred or two ago without doing the research myself. Especially the powerful speeches, I am completely captured by the charm of those persuasive words and unique viewpoints.

The arguments mentioned in the book may come from the perspective of a wife, a mother, a tax taxper--a woman. But in the end, it is simply from half of the Americans.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Large segment of the book is primary documents.