Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“This deft biography . . . firmly roots Stanton . . . in the complex swell of 19th century middle-class reform, and reveals her thornier, less egalitarian side.” —The New Yorker

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a brilliant activist-intellectual. That nearly all of her ideas—that women are entitled to seek an education, to own property, to get a divorce, and to vote—are now commonplace is in large part because she worked tirelessly to extend the nation’s promise of radical individualism to women.

In this subtly crafted biography, historian Lori D. Ginzberg narrates the life of a woman of great charm, enormous appetite, and extraordinary intellectual gifts who turned the limitations placed on women like herself into a universal philosophy of equal rights. Few could match Stanton’s self-confidence; loving an argument, she rarely wavered in her assumption that she had won. But she was no secular saint, and her positions were not always on the side of the broadest possible conception of justice and social change. Elitism runs through Stanton’s life and thought, defined most often by class, frequently by race, and always by intellect.

At once critical and admiring, Ginzberg captures Stanton’s ambiguous place in the world of reformers and intellectuals, describes how she changed the world, and suggests that Stanton left a mixed legacy that continues to haunt American feminism.

“Lori Ginzberg makes a convincing case for Stanton as the founding philosopher of the American women’s rights movement in a lively voice that enhances her eccentric subject.” —Andrea Cooper, American History

“An excellent biography of Stanton.” —Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, Feminist Review

“This work promises to be a classic and is recommended for all readers.” —Library Journal