Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote

Newcomer Zimet—founder of 2020: Project Women, a nonprofit celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment—and writer Hasak-Lowy present a compact composite portrait of the women who fought to secure voting rights for women. Tracking the turbulent path to the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, the authors explain how the suffrage movement had its roots in abolitionism, dealt with schisms due to diverging philosophies, navigated changing political landscapes, and contended with sexism, which “simply described how the county worked back then.” Quotations from the crusaders’ writings and speeches bring their personalities into focus: “I forged the thunderbolts and she fired them,” said Elizabeth Cady Stanton of working with Susan B. Anthony. Sidebars spotlight additional suffragists, as well as contemporaneous campaigns and organizations. A conversational tone (one gathering begins with an indignant Stanton, “as we might say today, losing it”) makes this primer all the more accessible and relevant, as does the observation that, with the proposed Equal Rights Amendment still in limbo, the struggle for women’s rights is in no way over. Ages 10–up. Author’s agent: (for Zimet) Amy Berkower, Writers House; (for Hasak-Lowy) Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Jan.)