Susan B. Anthony: Biography of a Rebel, Crusader, and Humanitarian of the Women's Rights and Feminist Movements

by Alma Lutz

Alma Lutz's outstanding biography of Susan B. Anthony is revered for its descriptive power, attention to detail and historical significance to the women's Suffragette movement. In this superb biography, we receive passionate accounts of the major turning points in Susan B. Anthony's life. The people who were her role models as a young woman, such as the articulate anti-slavery author Frederick B. Douglass, receive attention. Anthony's vociferous opposition to slavery led her to campaign before and during the U.S. Civil War for its abolition: her resolute spirit is well-documented from an early age: even as a teenager, Susan B. Anthony leafleted and campaigned for emancipation. As a leading figure in women's rights during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Susan B. Anthony was responsible for forming and organising several groups instrumental to women eventually gaining the vote in the United States. A tireless campaigner and speaker, Anthony would average between 75 and 100 speeches each year.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Feminism

236 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2007

Reviews

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This committed and determined worker for women's rights deserves this serious carefully laid out biography. As Anthony sought to speak and fight for women's rights, we sought the vote first and the resolution of some social issues of women's lives since forever--sexual and marital respect, child care and health, living conditions, and personal freedoms such as riding bicycles. When women ride bikes, no one controlled them, they were free in ways they had not known before.

Here in the biography, we see not just good ideas put forth. We also see the struggles the women's movement faced and which troubled Anthony so much. Women of the American frontier had worked alongside husbands to get to their land, to clear land, to grow crops, to build houses. Anthony sometimes saw these women respected enough to be granted suffrage in their states, often not. Anthony saw that black men had claimed their suffrage first they had been added by women of all colors to get to freedom in places north as far as Canada (and to freedom south as far as Mexico--not discussed here). Yet black men said to all women of all colors to stand down Anthony refused to stand down. When her friends and colleagues were marrying and bearing children, she fought on,ever aware of her writing and oratorical limitations, limitations that sometimes worked for the good of the fight for women's suffrage. This is a great and committed worker for all American women. She may not have known of the particular issues of women living in reservations or working on old plantations l, but she knew suffrage would change things in time.

Even when Anthony had to join forces with the Progressive Movement and was unsure if women would benefit really, she joined forces, seeing it as the only choice forward. Fir some women and some children the Progressive Movement would help. Although we no longer speak of making progress, we as women all colors and ethnicities express concern for our families and children and can use the vote to attempt and sometimes effect change in life experiences. . . . I sound like a fangirl :-)

[Jill McNish · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I recently decided to undertake an intentional study of the “Founding Mothers”of the early women’s movement in the United States I was unpleasantly surprised to find that there were few outstanding contemporary biographies of women such as Susan B Anthony. This book was first published in 1959 and seems dated. Although it dutifully sets forth the chronology of Anthony’s life and achievements, it is very dry. It reads almost like a textbook. Anthony was truly an extraordinary woman; M. Carey Thompson, the brilliant young President of Bryn Mawr College said that Anthony was “the greatest person I ever met. She seemed to me everything that a person could be—a leader to live for or to die for and follow wherever she led.” I suspect that had I known Anthony in life, I would have felt the same way. The problem I had with this book is that I learned nothing of Anthony’s inner life, i.e. her longings, her physical life, her intimacies or yearnings for intimacy (surely she had them!), her inner struggles, her faults. I completed this book with the same impression of her as I started it with: an icon made of granite, never shaken, never doubting, never mistaken, never weak, never lonely. The existence of such a person is not wholly real or credible to me, and certainly not very interesting. I want to know more about who Anthony really was as a person, what her friends and family thought of her, what her inner struggles, weaknesses, and temptations were. Anthony’s archives—her letters, journals, notes, speeches, etc. are all over the place. If I were 10 years younger I would attempt my own biography of this magnificent woman. Still I will continue to explore the lives of Anthony, Stanton, and other mothers of the women’s right movement in the hopes of feeling closer to them as women.

[Olwen White · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enlightening book that puts historical events into context. More importantly, the events are retold from the perspective of those living through them. It shows that politics is still more about politicians keeping their seats than it is about doing what's right. Everyone should read this book if only to fill in the blanks with the history they don't teach you in school. Backstabbing, suspense, intrigue, and betrayal. It's all in here and it's all based on Susan B Anthony's journal entries.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admired Susan B Anthony for her tenacity and resolve to fight against the injustices of her time. I was however surprised to discover she was not a great orator, instead depending on the words and direction of Elizabeth Stanton and others. I was also surprised that she didn't immediately focus on the woman suffrage movement, instead bouncing across the issues of slavery abolition, alcohol temperance and gender inequality before finally settling on woman's rights. She was very fortunate to have had the upbringing and family support to be able to pursue her passions. However, she was also very grounded in her core principles, demonstrated by accepting and paying off the entire debt of her newspaper venture rather than declaring bankruptcy. She was also very tactical in her efforts to push forward the agenda of women's rights, by campaigning, building associations, starting a paper, lobbying and being arrested to attract more media attention.

This book is good at chronicling the activities of Susan, but not her life. It completely omits her marriages and provides limited insights into her personality. The spirit of Susan however is well captured. Some favorite quotes:

"We can neither go back nor stand still. With the nation as with the individual, every new experience forces us into a new and higher life and the old self is lost forever."

"If the administration of Abraham Lincoln taught the American people one lesson above another, it was that they must think and speak and proclaim, and that he as their President was bound to execute their will, not his own. And if Lincoln were alive today, he would say as he did four years ago, 'I wait the voice of the people."

"If only I could die, and thereby fail honorably, I would say, 'Amen,' but to live and fail, it would be too terrible to bear."

"Governments never do any great good things from mere principle, from mere love of justice...You expect too much of human nature when you expect that."

"Failure is impossible."

[Olwen White · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in-depth narrative of Susan B Anthony's life from a small girl to old age. It covers historic events throughout her lifetime. Including the election and assassination of President Lincoln; the start and end of the American Civil War, as well as emancipation and abolition of slavery.

She wasn't just a campaigner for votes for women. She was also passionate and heavily involved with civil rights, equality, and freedom for all. Always at the forefront of activities to bring women's suffrage to the attention of the masses, she was also a fervent supporter of the abolition movement. Although she met with resistance, ridicule, contempt, and pure hatred from many, she never stopped fighting for the day when women would have the vote.

This book was a free download from Project Gutenberg and is a must-read for anyone interested in women's suffrage or American history from the 1800s. It's an eye-opener. Giving links to historical events that happened at the same time. It's like putting history back into context.

An unassuming yet remarkable woman. She had a long, full life and this book covers it all!

[Harriet Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusder

Susan B. Anthony Rebel , crusader by Alma Lutz is a fascinating book about a great leader. I highly recommend this book.