From Ladies to Women: The Organized Struggle for Women's Rights in the Reconstruction Era

(Hardback)

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Description

Unlike most leading works that focus on a broad spectrum of the woman's rights movement, Israel Kugler's volume provides an in-depth analysis of the drive for equalty for women during a specific, influential era in American history: the pioneering efforts of woman's rights organizations in the post-Civil War period. With the war against slavery at an end, the Reconstruction Era was hailed by women leaders, who had been active in the Union cause, as the time for the establishment of equal rights for all humanity--men and women alike. It was this historic period that saw the creation of permanent woman's rights organizations dedicated to a specific goal--that of woman suffrage.

Reviews

.,."Kugler's book has its compelling points. His choice of lengthy quotations draws the reader into the mindset of the movement's leaders and critics. In general, Kugler grounds the women's movement persuasively within the broader reform ethos of the Reconstruction era. Despite its image in the press, the Reconstruction era women's rights movement was not a loose cannon. As described by Kugler, it was part and parcel of the larger world of reform, even though the attempts at coalition promised more than they delivered."-Labor History
"Kugler traces the history of the American Equal Rights Association, which formed in 1866 under the leadership for four feminists--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Lucretia Mott. He documents their support for the inclusion of woman suffrage in the post-Civil War 15th amendment to the US Constitution. When the women were disappointed, they split in 1869 into two factions. The National Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Stanton and Anthony, focused its efforts to winning a suffrage amendment to the constitution and supported a broad range of women's issues, including marriage, divorce, love, and the organization of laboring women into unions. The American Woman Suffrage Association, lead by Stone, preferred to work for suffrage legislation on the state level. All efforts to achieve compromise and unity led by mott and Theodore Tilton, were unsuccessful, and the two groups maintained a rivalry for 20 years.... [Kugler] provides a clear and useful comparison between the goals, strategies, projects, and publications of the two opposing suffrage factions. Undergraduate libraries."-Choice
...Kugler's book has its compelling points. His choice of lengthy quotations draws the reader into the mindset of the movement's leaders and critics. In general, Kugler grounds the women's movement persuasively within the broader reform ethos of the Reconstruction era. Despite its image in the press, the Reconstruction era women's rights movement was not a loose cannon. As described by Kugler, it was part and parcel of the larger world of reform, even though the attempts at coalition promised more than they delivered.-Labor History
Kugler traces the history of the American Equal Rights Association, which formed in 1866 under the leadership for four feminists--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Lucretia Mott. He documents their support for the inclusion of woman suffrage in the post-Civil War 15th amendment to the US Constitution. When the women were disappointed, they split in 1869 into two factions. The National Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Stanton and Anthony, focused its efforts to winning a suffrage amendment to the constitution and supported a broad range of women's issues, including marriage, divorce, love, and the organization of laboring women into unions. The American Woman Suffrage Association, lead by Stone, preferred to work for suffrage legislation on the state level. All efforts to achieve compromise and unity led by mott and Theodore Tilton, were unsuccessful, and the two groups maintained a rivalry for 20 years.... [Kugler] provides a clear and useful comparison between the goals, strategies, projects, and publications of the two opposing suffrage factions. Undergraduate libraries.-Choice
..."Kugler's book has its compelling points. His choice of lengthy quotations draws the reader into the mindset of the movement's leaders and critics. In general, Kugler grounds the women's movement persuasively within the broader reform ethos of the Reconstruction era. Despite its image in the press, the Reconstruction era women's rights movement was not a loose cannon. As described by Kugler, it was part and parcel of the larger world of reform, even though the attempts at coalition promised more than they delivered."-Labor History

Author Bio

ISRAEL KUGLER is Professor Emeritus of Social Science at the City University of New York.