Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights

by Ridarsky, Christine L.; Huth, Mary M.; Hewitt, Nancy A.

• ISBN13: 9781580464253
• ISBN10: 1580464254
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Rochester Pr

Summary

Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights explores the diversity of thought and action in women's involvement in nineteenth-century U.S. reform movements, especially those to which Anthony dedicated her life: women's rights, racial equality, and temperance. Activists routinely faced hostility from opponents who did not share their views, but challenges did not always come from the outside. While advocates of particular reforms may have shared common goals, they often differed in opinion on how best to achieve those goals. Thus, activists' passions for their causes sometimes lead to conflict over tactical and philosophical issues within organized reform movements. As William Lloyd Garrison Jr. said at Susan B. Anthony's funeral, "Dissentions are inevitable in all human organizations, those of reform included. The contrary points of view regarding methods, and the personal equations which always enter, cause lines of cleavage and make grievances that rankle." Women's responses to the challenges they faced - both internal and external - were as numerous, complex, and varied as the challenges themselves. The essays in this volume examine some of the challenges and conflicts that confronted female reformers, as well as women's varied roles in and responses to them. Christine L. Ridarsky, Rochester City Historian, holds a PhD in history from the University of Rochester. Mary M. Huth is retired assistant director of the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester.