PositiveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksThe slow pace of women’s progress comes across viscerally in this meticulous, well-sourced volume, which at times feels like one very, very long lecture in an Introduction to Women’s Studies class ... It is a worthy aim, and the result is certainly inclusive, though the sheer volume of information the book presents tends to overwhelm the significance of individual contributions, including those of Black women ... Precisely because of its almost detached tone, Formidable comes across as an excellent book to share with white feminists skeptical of the value of concepts like intersectionality. The narrative’s general avoidance of judgment or even much analysis is compelling in its own way; one can argue about the ideal relationship between the Black Lives Matter movement and women’s rights, but the historical record is impossible to deny ... For readers already well aware of racism in the women’s movement, there is still much in this book that will inform and even amuse ... The author, an historian whose previous book illuminated the life of activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, is partial to long paragraphs of declarative sentences without a lot of transitional language. This works well as a concise chronicle of the many cultural, political, and personal events that make up a century-long, national history. But this style can make it difficult to track the many threads Griffith is weaving together; the reader may occasionally wonder if they’ve missed some important connection between ideas, or if the author has simply drifted into non sequitur. Fortunately, the book is well-indexed, so if you come across a name you don’t recognize but suspect you should know, you can always look it up in the back.
