The Woman’s Hour: Our Fight for the Right to Vote (Adapted for Young Readers) by Elaine Weiss (review)

“They were drenched by rainstorms, chased by watchdogs, and stranded by flat tires. But they found their men.” “They” were the pro- and anti-suffrage activists who blew through Tennessee in the summer of 1920, and “their men” were the Tennessee legislators who would be called into special session for a ratification vote that would seal the fate of the Nineteenth Amendment that would give women the right to vote. Whereas many books for youth in this centennial year offer overviews of first wave feminism, this rousing adaptation of Weiss’ adult work zooms in on the nailbiting eleventh-hour blitz to push Tennessee off the fence—either expanding on the partial suffrage legislation it had just passed a year prior, or retracting from further enfranchisement under the banner of states’ rights, traditionalist values, and racism. “Suffs” Carrie Chapman Catt of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (who grabbed the baton from Susan B. Anthony) and Sue White of the National Woman’s Party (under the leadership of firebrand Alice Paul) go head to head with “Anti” Josephine Pearson of the Tennessee State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (a politically active organization dedicated to keeping women out of politics). It’s a drama rife with dirty tricks, double-dealing, business lobbying, election year horse-trading, surprising alliances, and last-minute defections, all unfolding with the flow of a gripping novel. Weiss eschews the tone of Noble Purpose Triumphant for a clear-eyed assessment of driven women with ethically questionable gambits and serious philosophical blind spots whose final nasty battle nonetheless pushed our nation forward. Illustrated plates and a selected bibliography are included; the bound book will include an index.