PositiveThe TimesRise Up, Women! aims to be a definitive history of the suffragettes as well as shining a spotlight on the role of working-class women in the campaign. Atkinson’s admiration for the courage of her subjects radiates throughout the book, but stops short of hagiography ... The ambition for completeness renders the book at times a dense read, and Atkinson’s habit of naming almost every individual present at any given event, presumably to commemorate all those women involved in the WSPU, slows the pace. However, her desire to shed light on the contribution of working-class suffragettes bears rewards ... Atkinson exhorts the reader to salute the suffragettes. She is right to do so. It is easy to assume that women’s suffrage was inevitable, but that should not detract from the efforts and losses undertaken by the pioneers so vividly described in this account.
