Annotation
With Courage and Cloth is a history of the women’s suffrage movement in America focusing on the time period between 1913 and the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919.
Review
I first became fascinated with Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party (NWP) after seeing the HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels and reading Doris Steven’s, a fellow suffragist of Paul’s, book Jailed for Freedom. I was extremely pleased to find such a comprehensive and interesting work on the women’s suffrage movement in America as Bausum’s With Courage and Cloth. Bausum has presented an honest and well researched history of the movement. Many history books do not describe what women went through to get the vote. Paul and the NWP organized peaceful protests in which they picketed the White House, turning President Wilson’s own words against him with their banners demanding enfranchisement and liberty. Despite the fact that their protests were peaceful and nonviolent, their words incited anger and violence in others. The violence of others led to the unlawful arrest and incarceration of suffragists. In jail the women were severely mistreated and those that participated in a nonviolent hunger strike, such as Paul were forcibly fed and underwent psychiatric review. Despite the obstacles they encountered these brave women never stopped fighting, even after the passage of the 19th Amendment, they continued to fight to equal rights for women. Bausum’s With Courage and Cloth, is an inspiring book that truly makes me grateful to the women who worked so hard to ensure that women had a voice in the government. With Courage and Cloth is an excellent reminder of why everyone, but especially women, should exercise their right to vote.
Awards/Honors
ALSC Notable Book 2005
Orbis Pictus Award 2005
Front and Back Matter
TOC, Afterword, Profiles, Chronology, Resource Guide, Sources, Acknowledgments, Bibliography, Illustrations Credits, Index
Author’s Website
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