Weiss presents a panoramic view of the proceedings, which are alternately juicy (accusations of libel and bribery abounded, and, in spite of Prohibition, the whiskey and bourbon were free-flowing) and procedural. Weiss also provides national and international context: World War I had ended less than two years earlier, and both the war and its aftermath had jumbled established norms of gender, race and employment ... Weiss is a clear and genial guide with an ear for telling language ... She also shows a superb sense of detail, and it’s the deliciousness of her details that suggests certain individuals warrant entire novels of their own ... The Woman’s Hour offers several timely reminders: of how history-altering legislation comes about after much nitty-gritty, unglamorous fieldwork; of how tenuous the progress toward true equality under the law really is; of how social and legal changes that in retrospect seem inevitable were hardly considered such at the time (indeed, even after the 19th Amendment passed, its ratification was contested repeatedly). And yet, if nothing can be taken for granted and change rarely comes without a fight, there remains reason for optimism.
So it's bracing to read Elaine Weiss's stirring, definitive, and engrossing treatment of winning suffrage in America, The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote. Weiss brings a lucid, lively, journalistic tone to the story. Perhaps her greatest contribution is documenting the intricate, contentious element of racism that almost crippled the struggle. For that insight alone, The Woman's Hour is compulsory reading. In America, as we need to be reminded over and over, it's always about race.
Weiss gives suffrage advocates like Catt and White their due but, like cinema villains, Pearson and the antisuffragists ('Antis') have the more dynamic and interesting roles in the story ... Weiss appropriately treats the women Antis with respect and nuance, trying to uncover their sincere and genuine views. She nonetheless demonstrates how the political activism of these women disproved so many of the assumptions upon which their opposition to suffrage equality was built. Women could lobby, organize, and play political hardball with the best of them ... Weiss, with her keen eye focused on the story’s villains, perhaps gives less attention to the variety of interests that came together to advance votes for women. Her portraits of suffrage advocates, both famous and little known, however, are detailed and balanced.
Weiss' reportage clearly shows she did a huge amount of research, which enables her to add splashes of color to what could have easily become a snooze-worthy political-science tome ... But much of the drama seeps out of the book, due to too many unnecessary details and chapters that bounce between themes and timelines.
In The Woman’s Hour, a gripping account of those fraught and steamy days in Nashville, Elaine Weiss delivers political history at its best ... she writes with verve and color that captures the feverish excitement of a moment when, whatever the outcome, every woman and man packed into Tennessee’s imposing statehouse knew that history was about to be made. With a skill reminiscent of Robert Caro, she turns the potentially dry stuff of legislative give-and-take into a drama of courage and cowardice, showing the pain of compromise and the power of substantive debate in an age when rhetoric was still an art and political discourse still aimed to persuade ... Too long neglected by historians, the campaigners who swarmed Tennessee’s statehouse have been splendidly served by Ms. Weiss’s engrossing narrative.
Weiss wonderfully describes the drama in the Tennessee statehouse that day: crowds packed into the visitors’ gallery, the Suffs draped in saffron, and the Antis wearing red flowers. When the vote finally came, a mother’s letter and a last-minute defection were game changers so unexpected that for a few minutes history reads like outlandish fiction.
Although the reader may at times feel impatient with the amount of time Weiss takes to set the stage, her detailed lead-up to the climax is worth it ... At times, The Woman’s Hour can feel labyrinthine, due not only to the number of people involved in the fight, but also to the author’s in-depth analysis of a six-week period of nonstop activity. Mostly, though, Weiss’ attention to the small things pays off. She writes with wry humor ... Elaine Weiss’ book is a well-written, well-thought-out work set in a decisive historical moment. For readers eager to learn more about woman’s suffrage and for history lovers in general, it is a must-read.
It was hoped that the publication of this volume would coincide with the election of the country’s first female president. Although that did not happen, this is still an extremely relevant, interesting, and important contribution to the historical literature in light of the cultural upheaval extant in contemporary American society.
Weiss’s remarkably entertaining work of scholarship provides a thorough and timely examination of a shining moment in the ongoing fight to achieve a more perfect union.
Although the outcome of the Tennessee drama is obvious—after all, we all know the amendment was ratified—Weiss expertly builds the suspense, and the closeness of the eventual vote by the Tennessee legislature adds to the drama.
