Hochschild writes movingly about an unlikely pair who also served as a potent symbol ... Hochschild is a superb writer who makes light work of heavy subjects ... Where information is scant or nonexistent, he deploys elegant workarounds that evoke a vivid sense of time and place ... Hochschild’s book shows us what a radical movement looked like from the inside, with all of its high-flown idealism and personal intrigues. Whatever protections we take for granted once seemed unfathomable before they became real.
Hochschild is among the most readable of historians ... Given their wildly different backgrounds, perhaps it's remarkable the marriage lasted as long as it did. Hochschild has done a brilliant job of bringing it to life and in doing so, illuminating the complex social and economic history of a generation whose rabble-rousers and dreamers bequeathed us such reforms as Social Security, Medicare, child labor laws and the eight-hour day.
... thoroughly engrossing, meticulously researched and well-illustrated ... Despite the book’s title, there are no fairy-tale heroes in it, which testifies to the subtlety of Mr. Hochschild’s narrative imagination ... There is indeed a literary intensity to much of Rebel Cinderella, and Mr. Hochschild is as excellent at invoking such personal confrontations as he is at summarizing, with epigrammatic clarity, complex historical developments ... Mr. Hochschild reminds us of the continuing disparity between the rich and the poor in modern U.S. society. But his book is not a cautionary tale; if there is anything to be learned from the broken lives of Rose Pastor and Graham Phelps Stokes, it’s that being human is a messy business. Of Mr. Hochschild’s two main characters, the uncharismatic Graham with his unearned wealth, less prince than princeling, bold enough to marry Rose and too conventional to tolerate her independence, perhaps seems the more familiar figure today. By contrast, Rose, more rebel than Cinderella, gloriously passionate even when she was wrong, belongs to another, fiercer time.
... compelling ... there was something unsinkable about Stokes’s life force that Hochschild never really explains satisfactorily ... Hochschild...sticks to a traditional narrative path in his handling of Rose’s biography ... a solidly researched and impressive biography that leaves us with a clear picture of Rose Pastor Stokes[.]
This book contrasts with other Hochshild works, including To End All Wars about World War I and Spain in Our Hearts about the Spanish Civil War. In those masterful histories, he tells the big story through the experiences of people involved. Here, he goes in the opposite direction, focusing on a single character and painting the context around her. This smaller frame doesn’t match the power of the others. But in Hochschild’s hands it remains a compelling read about a fascinating time in American history, one that bears some resemblance to today.
Although the author suggests that Rebel Cinderella is fundamentally the story of a marriage, Hochschild paints a vivid portrait of the rise (and ultimate demise) of radical reform movements during the earliest decades of the twentieth century in the United States ... The title of this volume does a disservice to Hochschild’s thoughtful biography of Rose Pastor Stokes and her involvement in the American left. Her life was much more than a 'rags to riches to radical' story. Even before she met Graham, she was an independent woman fighting for the lives of immigrant workers. In later years, she was willing to sacrifice not only her reputation but her financial standing and even her marriage in order to speak out against injustice. Rather than embracing a Cinderella change in her own fortune, Rose Pastor Stokes sought to overturn the whole system of inequality. Even if we might disagree with some of her tactics, this fine study offers us an inspiring example of passion and hope for the future.
Lucidly written and painstakingly researched, this is a joy to read, cementing Pastor in her rightful place with other progressive figures of the time.
With the sure hand of an experienced guide, award-winning author Hochschild takes readers through the socialist circles of New York City in the Progressive Era ... Hochschild’s captivating and fast-paced biography is a true delight and an excellent addition to women’s history shelves.
... polished and accessible ... The depth and richness of Hochschild’s portrait is somewhat compromised by his commitment to the reductive Cinderella trope, but few histories capture the era’s combustible mix of idealism and inequality better.
