Product Description

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two heroic women who vastly bettered the lives of a majority of American citizens. For more than fifty years they led the public battle to secure for women the most basic civil rights and helped establish a movement that would revolutionize American society. Yet despite the importance of their work and they impact they made on our history, a century and a half later, they have been almost forgotten.

Stanton and Anthony were close friends, partners, and allies, but judging from their backgrounds they would seem an unlikely pair. Stanton was born into the prominent Livingston clan in New York, grew up wealthy, educated, and sociable, married and had a large family of her own. Anthony, raised in a devout Quaker environment, worked to support herself her whole life, elected to remain single, and devoted herself to progressive causes, initially Temperance, then Abolition. They were nearly total opposites in their personalities and attributes, yet complemented each other's strengths perfectly. Stanton was a gifted writer and radical thinker, full of fervor and radical ideas but pinned down by her reponsibilities as wife and mother, while Anthony, a tireless and single-minded tactician, was eager for action, undaunted by the terrible difficulties she faced. As Stanton put it, "I forged the thunderbolts, she fired them."

The relationship between these two extraordinary women and its effect on the development of the suffrage movement are richly depicted by Ward and Burns, and in the accompanying essays by Ellen Carol Dubois, Ann D. Gordon, and Martha Saxton. We also see Stanton and Anthony's interactions with major figures of the time, from Frederick Douglass and John Brown to Lucretia Mott and Victoria Woodhull. Enhanced by a wonderful array of black-and-white and color illustrations, Not For Ourselves Alone is a vivid and inspiring portrait of two of the most fascinating, and important, characters in American history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385613 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-19
• Released on: 1999-10-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
In 1902, at the age of 83, Susan B. Anthony wrote a letter to her dearest friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

We little dreamed when we began this contest, optimistic with the hope and buoyancy of youth, that half a century later we would be compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with business experience, with the fully admitted right to speak in public--all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. They have practically but one point to gain--the suffrage; we had all.

Anthony and Stanton had worked together for over half a century for women's rights and were instrumental in keeping the movement alive despite repeated defeats. Sadly, Anthony is best remembered as "the woman on that funny dollar" and Stanton has been largely forgotten. PBS favorites Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward have joined forces again to change all that, in their respectful dual biography of the great suffragettes, Not for Ourselves Alone. The authors trace Anthony and Stanton's very different lives--Anthony was a Quaker who remained single all her life; Stanton was born to a wealthy family and later married and raised several children--from girlhood on through their hard work, frequent disagreements on policy, and unflagging devotion to the cause of women's rights. In this era when fewer than half the eligible voters go to the polls, many have forgotten the struggles of Anthony and Stanton, the sacrifices they made, and the hardships they endured. Anthony, for one, was frequently vilified in the press, cruelly caricatured, and shouted down at lectures. What shines most brightly throughout the volume, however, is the love and respect these women felt for one another.

With contributions by noted historians Ann D. Gordon and Ellen Carol Dubois, and dozens of evocative contemporary photographs, Not for Ourselves Alone provides a view of the suffrage movement through the eyes of the women who fought hardest for it. "We are sowing winter wheat," Stanton confided to her diary, "which the coming spring will see sprout and which other hands than ours will reap and enjoy." Indeed, neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to be able to cast a ballot. But Burns and Ward have assured them of a larger place in the American memory--as is their right. --Sunny Delaney

From Publishers Weekly
When Paul Barnes suggested that Elizabeth Cady Stanton be included in the film portraits of notable Americans that Ken Burns was planning to make, Burns barely recognized the name. Marginally more familiar was that of Susan B. Anthony, Stanton's comrade-in-arms in the struggle for women's suffrage. But as this bookAthe companion volume to the documentary that will appear this fall on PBSAsplendidly reveals, theirs is the story not merely of two remarkable 19th-century women but of a major political movement, the end of which has yet to be written. This dual biography of the pair by the historian Ward emphasizes the impossibility of treating either one in isolation from the other. Anthony's grasp of the practical complemented Stanton's philosophical imaginationAas Stanton wrote, "entirely one are we." Ward restores Stanton to her proper place alongside Anthony in the history of the women's movement and sensitively handles the more problematic elements of their political positions, especially in regard to their resistance to the enfranchisement of former male slaves before the vote was extended to women of any color. Additionally, there are essays by prominent women historians, including a provocative discussion of Stanton's contemporary reputation by Ellen Carol DuBois, and the wealth of illustrations that we have come to expect from Burns and his associates.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Since most Americans are cynical about the promise of electoral reform, it is hard for us to fathom the franchise as a source of power. But it has not always been this way, writes award-winning historian and biographer Ward (First Class Temperament). This book, a companion to a documentary film by Burns and Paul Barnes, tells the story of the century-long struggle for woman suffrage. The book centers around the movement's earliest leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Brilliantly chronicled, their tireless 50-year campaign for the right to vote is set in the context of other social movements, from abolition to temperance to economic justice. Political differencesAAnthony's determined single-issue focus and Cady Stanton's more holistic and radical politicsAare made tangible; readers can almost feel the heat of the pair's debates. Yet throughout, their friendship and mutual respect are palpable. Ward is to be commended for crafting a document that blends personal detail with political theory. The text is accompanied by 150 illustrations and excerpts from speeches delivered by both women. A valuable addition to all academic and public libraries.
-AEleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A fine short history
A fine short history of "two wonderfully different and equally brilliant women". If, after the three-hour film shown on public television, you still look blank when people mention Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this companion volume is the book for you. Six chapters, lavishly illustrated and interspersed with short essays, two of their speeches and a discussion of their treatment in history, trace the fifty-year personal and political alliance between two women who spearheaded American women's first great effort to achieve equal rights. Often ridiculed and slandered in life and ignored by historians after death, Anthony and Stanton, wherever they are, should welcome this balanced and detailed account of their interwoven lives and works, often given in their own words. Discussion of their faults and mistakes, as well as their virtues and successes, gives depth to the picture. Because the two friends were so important to the women's movement (and its drive for the vote), the book also offers snapshots of other women who should be better known to Americans, such as the Grimké sisters, Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Working together and apart, Anthony and Stanton set endless happy convocations of the sons of Adam by the ears and made arguments that no one could answer. This book is a brief account of how they did it. (Readers who want a bigger meal can find a useful menu in the bibliography.)

Applause to Ken Burns & Geoffrey Ward!
This book is richly woven with details that dive into the true characters of these two beautiful souls. The book gives a truly amazing account of not only Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, but dives into their lives and characters. The reader obtains a true understanding of these women's motivations, techniques, skills, and contributions, in a brilliant biography with great quotes, accounts, photographs, and special archives directly from the time period of Susan & Elizabeth, relating to their work. Ken Burns & Geoffrey C. Ward have made quite an accomplishment with this extraordinary account.

Wonderful recounting of many important women
This book fills a glaring need in history books. Not many people know more about Susan B. Anthony than she was one the dollar coin. This book corrects that oversight, and then some. Not only does the book give a balanced and well thought out look at Anthony and Stanton, the reader is also introduced to many, many other women who worked so hard for women rights.
I especially liked that the book didn't shy away from some of these women's more controversial stands, such as taking on the black person's cause.
All in all, a very good book.