Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism

by Susan Ware

“Ware writes that she wanted to ‘rescue Amelia from the cult of her disappearance,’ to replace an impossibly romanticized, martyred enigma with a useful piece of history. Grown-up women of today, aviators, and others, should find this Earhart a more plausible and heartening forerunner.” ―Amy E. Schwartz, Air & Space Still Missing is a fascinating biography of one of the most intriguing women of modern history. In it, Susan Ware recovers the parts of Earhart's life that have been obscured by the emphasis on her disappearance. Setting her in her place and times, Ware speaks of the woman who set aviation records, who endlessly promoted the ability of women to enter any and all professions, who served as a dynamic role model because of her charm and spirit. Ware's portrait of Earhart is of a woman we all need to rediscover.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Aviation

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Susan Ware, celebrated feminist historian and biographer, is the author of American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction and Letter to the World: Seven Women Who Shaped the American Century, among other books. She is the editor of American Women’s Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote, 1776–1965 and is Honorary Women’s Suffrage Centennial Historian at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just seen Hilary Swank's film Amelia I was reminded that I had a biography of the subject on the shelf, something picked up years ago. Wanting to fact-check the movie, I pulled it out and read it in two sittings.

Except for the bit about Earhart having an affair with Gene Vidal (Gore's father), for which there is no evidence, Swank's portrayal is pretty good. She catches the speech patterns and general appearance well. Much of the film hinges upon the relationship between Earhart and her husband, G.P. Putnam, and much of that is invented, plausibly enough, as not too much appears to be known about their private lives.

The book, as ever, is better, representing not only the whole of Earhart's forty-year life but also its reception by and influence upon American culture. Much of it was news to me. I'd no idea that Earhart had been a nurse volunteer in Canada during WWI and then a social worker. I'd no idea she held so many world records, not female world records, though there were plenty of those, but real world records irrespective of gender. I'd no idea of how close she was to the Roosevelts, nor that she had as many political involvements as she did. Heck, I didn't even know she was married--albeit in an ostensibly "open" marriage.

The major point for me, however, that which got me to tear up while reading this book, was that Amelia Earhart, at least as Susan Ware represents her, was not only an accomplished individualist. She was also a socially conscious and generous person who managed to dovetail her personal pursuits with broader ones, particularly the women's movement.

One small caveat: This is by no means a definitive biography of the subject. Indeed, it approaches hagiography.

[Dan Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful biography of Amelia Earhart takes a different approach and has a different purpose than any other biography of Amelia Earhart and I have read at least ten of them. If what you want is a standard, birth to death account of her life I highly recommend East to the Dawn by Susan Butler. But the strength of this, Susan Ware's book, is her emphasis on the social significance of Earhart's life and accomplishments, how and why she was an inspiration to girls and women in her day -- to a degree probably not duplicated since -- and her role of forging a new vision of what a woman could d
o, and be. I found it more interesting to read than a standard biography as well.

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up from the end table to put it away and realized I was only a few chapters away from finishing, so I read it at lunch.

This book adds important perspective to the way that female heroines used to be and thier simple, individualist brand of feminism. Earhart's life is a great framework to describe the feminist movement of the 1930s. I am glad the author moved beyond a simple biography and provided real synthesis and historical connection to the female experience at large.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Too much feminist philosophy and not enough detail about AE's life. I just felt like she never came alive in the pages. A bit disappointing honestly. I have no problem with the feminist aspect of the book, but I just didn't feel like the two subjects meshed well into a cohesive narrative.

[Ben Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for Survey of American History at Oklahoma State University under Dr. Douglas Miller.

"Feminist theory and practice," writes Susan Ware, "must retain some ideological edge." It's strange, then, that Ware labels Earhart as a feminist, despite Earhart herself rejecting the label. Additionally, Ware is very unclear about what feminism means to her. When she calls Earhart a feminist, is she using the term as Earhart and the NWP used it? Or is she using it in the sense that people used it at the time of publishing? Regardless of whether Earhart was a feminist or not, she was certainly very important in the history of feminism, and this book is a very good biography of her championship of gender equality.

This book is less a biography of Amelia Earhart, and more of an exploration of postsuffrage feminism with the context of Earhart's life and accomplishments.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book 3 stars because I thought it was well researched, with some interesting perspectives on Amelia Earhart and her contributions to the feminist movement of the post-suffragette era. But as this was about my 4th or 5th book on Amelia Earhart, and since I wasn't really learning anything new about her life, I couldn't actually finish the book - I came within about 80 pages of finishing it, but I couldn't. If this book were, say, the 2nd or 3rd book on Amelia that I had read, I would have been able to complete it and may have rated it higher. But it just couldn't hold my interest.

To be honest, I can't recommend this book either - it was more of a scholarly research work than a popular history book. Sometimes that is exactly what I want. But just not right now.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by Amelia Earhart's story, ever since I was a little girl. Her over-popularized disappearance overshadows an amazing life, full of ambition and success (a life well worth reading about). This particular book teeters genre-wise between Biography and Cultural Studies, as Susan Ware explores the life of Amelia Earhart and feminism in the 1920's and 30's (an interesting "individualist" time period, after Women's Suffrage and before the organized movement in the 60's).

The book sometimes reads like a Women's Studies Graduate Thesis paper, sometimes a bit clunky and easy to fall out of. But Amelia Earthart's personal quips and reading about this interesting time period in America is enough to keep you involved...

[Jeanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a history of Amelia Earhart in the context of the history of feminism. Even though her name is in the title of the book, I never got a good sense of the famed aviator. And the feminist element? It seemed really repetitive.

Because I knew barely anything about AE, I certainly learned something from this book. However, I’m not sure that I’d classify this book as a biography. I’d probably file it under feminism. Additionally, this book is far too academic and dry for popular audiences.

[Corky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hailed as "a fascinating biography of one of the most intriguing women of modern history", to me, this is more a biography of feminism than Amelia Earhart. While I admire Earhart's work towards equality for women (she was active in supporting birth control and equal wages for women long before they became popular causes), I truly thought this biography would provide more detail into her personal life.

[Kathleen Schmitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting analysis of the influence of Amelia Earhart on modern feminism from a NY University historian. Can be a little dry, but if you are interested in Amelia Earhart and/or feminism in the United States of America, this book is well worth reading.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, interesting view on Amelia Earhart and what she meant for women during the 1920s and 1930s. It was interesting and a quick read.

[Lisa]

Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism by Susan Ware (1994)

[Broke Bertha]

meh...created more questions than i have time for...had to put it down.

[Preston Kramas]

Rohen Llien