Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist and writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, The New York Times, and The Christian Science Monitor, as well as in reports and documentaries for National Public Radio and Voice of America. A MacDowell Colony Fellow and Pushcart Prize Editor's Choice honoree, she is also the author of Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army in the Great War (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press).
“Weiss renders the conflict so suspensefully that it is easy to see
why Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television has already bought the
rights to the book. The book grippingly recounts the twists and
reversals that took place in the weeks leading up to the suffrage
victory, but it is even more thrilling in its presentation of
ideas—both those of the suffragists and those of the people who
opposed them…The Woman’s Hour animates the past so fully that its
facts feel anything but fated.”—Casey Cep, The New Yorker
“At the heart of democracy lies the ballot box, and Elaine Weiss’s
unforgettable book tells the story of the female leaders who—in the
face of towering economic, racial, and political opposition—fought
for and won American women's right to vote. Unfolding over six
weeks in the summer of 1920, The Woman’s Hour is both a
page-turning drama and an inspiration for everyone, young and old,
male and female, in these perilous times. So much could have gone
wrong, but these American women would not take no for an answer:
their triumph is our legacy to guard and emulate.”—Hillary Rodham
Clinton
“Stirring, definitive, and engrossing….Weiss brings a lucid,
lively, journalistic tone to the story…The Woman's Hour is
compulsory reading.”—NPR.org
“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… Weiss’s thoroughness is one of
the book’s great strengths. So vividly had she depicted events that
by the climactic vote (spoiler alert: The amendment was ratified!),
I got goose bumps.”—Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book
Review
"With a skill reminiscent of Robert Caro, [Weiss] turns the
potentially dry stuff of legislative give-and-take into a drama of
courage and cowardice."—The Wall Street Journal
“A genteel but bare-knuckled political thriller…the account reads
like a reality show, impossible to predict…Weiss’ narrative is
energetic and buoyant even at the most critical moments.”—Ms.
Magazine
“A nonfiction political thriller…Weiss zeroes in on the final
campaign of the suffrage movement.”—Bustle.com
“Riveting… Weiss provides a multidimensional account of the
political crusade… The result is a vivid work of American history.”
—The National Book Review
“Anyone interested in the history of our country’s ongoing fight to
put its founding values into practice—as well as those seeking the
roots of current political fault lines—would be well-served by
picking up Elaine Weiss’s The Woman’s Hour. By focusing in on
the final battle in the war to win women the right to vote, told
from the point of view of its foot soldiers, Weiss humanizes both
the women working in favor of the amendment and those working
against it, exposing all their convictions, tactics, and flaws. She
never shies away from the complicating issue of race; the frequent
conflict and occasional sabotage that occurred between women’s
suffrage activists and the leaders of the nascent civil rights
movement make for some of the most fascinating material in the
book.”—Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the #1 New York
Times bestseller Hidden Figures
“Even the most informed feminists will learn a thing or
two.”—HelloGiggles
“[A] lively history.”—Newsday
“This timely exploration of the history of American gender politics
reverberates during the present debate over female equality in all
aspects of life and reminds us of how long and complex that
struggle has been.”—Knoxville News Sentinel
“An intriguing, timely read. Ripe for book club discussion.”—South
Coast Today
“[An] important tale…Weiss’ reportage…enables her to add splashes
of color [and] wonderful dimension.”—USA Today
“A page-turner…the story here is told in all its ugliness.”—New
York Journal of Books
"This well-researched and well-documented history reveals how
prosuffragists sometimes compromised racial equality to win white
women’s enfranchisement, and that, although the 19th Amendment was
ratified, there exists to this day an ongoing battle to effect
universal, unrestricted suffrage."—Library Journal
“Weiss does a wonderful job of laying out the background of the
American women’s suffrage movement….A lively slice of history
filled with political drama, Weiss’s book captures a watershed
moment for American women.”—Book Page
“Remarkably entertaining ... a timely examination of a shining
moment in the ongoing fight to achieve a more perfect
union.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review
“Imaginatively conceived and vividly written, The Woman’s
Hour gives us a stirring history of women's long journey
to suffrage and to political influence. Making bold connection with
race and class, Weiss’s splendid book is as much needed today
as it was in 1940 when Eleanor Roosevelt noted that men hate women
with power. As every victory since the Civil War and
Reconstruction faces the wrecker, The Woman’s
Hour is an inspiration in the continuing struggles for
suffrage, and for race and gender justice, and for
democracy.—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of the New York
Times bestseller Eleanor Roosevelt
Praise for Fruits of Victory
"Weiss's excellent work of cross-disciplinary scholarship offers
readers a unique look at how WWI changed society."
—Booklist
"Weiss effectively chronicles the birth of the WLA movement and the
dedicated women behind it. Recommended for both scholarly readers
and interested history buffs."
—Library Journal
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