Synopses & Reviews
The biographies of more than 800 women form the basis for Elna Green's study of the suffrage and the antisuffrage movements in the South. Green's comprehensive analysis highlights the effects that factors such as class background, marital status, educational level, and attitudes about race and gender roles had in inspiring the region's women to work in favor of, or in opposition to, their own enfranchisement.
Green sketches the ranks of both movementswhich included women and men, black and whiteand identifies the ways in which issues of class, race, and gender determined the composition of each side. Coming from a wide array of beliefs and backgrounds, Green argues, southern women approached enfranchisement with an equally varied set of strategies and ideologies. Each camp defined and redefined itself in opposition to the other. But neither was entirely homogeneous: issues such as states' rights and the enfranchisement of black women were so divisive as to give rise to competing organizations within each group. By focusing on the grassroots constituency of each side, Green provides insight into the whole of the suffrage debate.
Review
Well written and accessible to nonspecialists.
Signs
Review
[Finds] much that is new in an old topic, namely, how the woman suffrage movement culminated in victory.
Southern Cultures
Review
This study advances considerably our understanding of the complexities of the suffrage and antisuffrage movements in the southern states.
Journal of American History
Review
A significant achievement .
Journal of Social History
Review
Provocative and imaginative, well researched and argued.
Choice
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-276) and index.