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Reviewed by:
  • Women, Power, and Political Change, and: Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice, and: Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist, and: June Jordan: Her Life and Letters
  • Anne Charles (bio)
Women, Power, and Political Change by Bonnie G. Mani. New York: Lexington Books, 2007, 314 pp., $80.00 hardcover, $28.95 paper.
Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, 229 pp., $25.00 hardcover.
Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist by Lois Gordon. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, 447 pp., $32.95 hardcover.
June Jordan: Her Life and Letters by Valerie Kinloch. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006, 200 pp., $44.95 hardcover.

Historian Barbara Tuchman describes biography as "the prism of history" and nowhere is this description more apt than in the four books under review here. Bonnie Mani provides snapshots of U.S. history from the Colonial Period to the present, Janet Malcolm focuses on France during World War II, Lois Gordon looks primarily at Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, and Valerie Kinloch calls up the United States of the recent past. Not all of these books conform to the conventions of biography, strictly defined, yet all deepen our grasp of how biographical particulars and historical events interact to form individual and collective purpose.

The most sweeping of these inquiries is Bonnie Mani's inquiry into the lives of "entrepreneurial women," Women, Power, and Political Change, a bio/historical treatment of fourteen past and two contemporary women "who have facilitated change" (2). Having selected her subjects from the 1969 National Women's Hall of Fame established at Seneca Falls, New York, the site of the first Women's Rights Convention, Mani applies seven criteria to each figure in the hopes that her study will reveal ways to improve the circumstances of contemporary women. The lives and work of luminaries ranging from Anne Hutchinson to Ida B. Wells-Barnett, from Harriet Tubman to Hillary Rodham Clinton are explored with the aid of Mani's seemingly arbitrary categories. Admitting that "none of these studies include in-depth analyses of the lives of individual women" (5), Mani covers a lot of historical ground spanning the broad period of the United States between 1610 and the present. Clearly this is too much material to cover even in an overview, but a close look at the analysis raises more pressing concerns.

The volume needs to be more carefully edited. Mani's inclusion of introductions to each historical chapter provides an auspicious beginning [End Page 204] for each section, but, unfortunately, the material covered here overlaps with information appearing later in the chapter. We are, thus, repeatedly informed, for example, that during the early nineteenth century the Quaker church was the only religion that allowed women to speak publicly (22, 33, 39, 171). Such repetition ranges throughout the book, accompanied by slapdash locutions like the description of Gloria Steinem as "a freelance writer and editor who has published several feminist books such as Ms. Magazine" (210). Names appear occasionally without any accompanying identification and major sections of text are drawn from one source at a time. The problems of the book run deeper, however.

In her discussion of Elizabeth Dole's platform, Mani declares, "Although she opposed discrimination against gays, she did not support preferential programs based on sexual orientation" (240). This evocation of mythical "preferential programs" combines with Mani's utter failure to acknowledge lesbianism or even romantic friendships between women leads one to wonder whether this writer is uncomfortable with the idea of romantic love between women. For instance, Mani's blind spot is most clearly revealed in her discussion of Jane Addams, when she writes:

As an adult, Jane's closest friend, source of emotional support, confidante, and companion was Mary Rozet Smith [. . .] When the two women were apart they frequently wrote letters to each other; the salutations and content were reminiscent of love letters [. . .] When one was ill, the other nursed her. When Mary Smith died in 1934 Jane seemed as sad as when her father died.

(151)

The fact that the women were lovers is nowhere acknowledged.

Ignoring the range of women's sexual expression performs a disservice to...

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