Jeannette Rankin, America's ConscienceSocial worker, suffragist, first woman elected to the United States Congress, a lifelong peace activist, and a tireless advocate for political reform, Jeannette Rankin is often remembered as the woman who voted "No." Elected to Congress from Montana on the eve of the United States' entry into World War I, Rankin cast her first voteÑthe first vote cast in the House of Representatives by any womanÑagainst the declaration of war against Germany. Reelected to Congress in 1940, she repeated her vote, becoming the only member of Congress to vote against the United States' involvement in World War II. Born in Montana in 1880, Jeannette Rankin's life of activism spanned much of the twentieth century. A "first-wave" feminist who campaigned for women's suffrage, she became a heroine to "second-wave" feminists in the 1960s and a living testament to the achievements of their foremothers. A peace advocate during and after World War I, she lead the Jeannette Rankin Brigade during the March on Washington in 1968 to protest the Vietnam War. A woman who lived her conscience, Jeannette Rankin became America's conscience through her unflagging campaigns for children's protective legislation, women's rights, election reform, and most of all, peace. Rankin's determined voice shines in this biography, written by her friend, Norma Smith, who paints a convincing portrait of a complicated activist based on interviews with Rankin in the 1960s. |
Contents
FOREWORD by Joan Hoff | 1 |
INTRODUCTION by Kathryn Anderson | 5 |
PREFACE | 23 |
ONE Determined Woman | 25 |
Two A Pioneer Family | 29 |
THREE Waiting for Life to Come to | 41 |
FOUR A Career in the Suffrage Movement | 57 |
FIVE Suffrage Success in Montana | 75 |
Suffragist | 115 |
NINE Defeated Politician | 127 |
TEN Miss Rankin Former Congresswoman | 143 |
ELEVEN Peace Activist | 157 |
Pacifist | 171 |
THIRTEEN Retirement | 191 |
FOURTEEN Woman on Horseback | 207 |
ESSAY ON SOURCES | 224 |
Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Jeannette Rankin, America's Conscience |
| Author | Norma Smith |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Montana Historical Society, 2002 |
| ISBN | 0917298799, 9780917298790 |
| Length | 233 pages |
| Subjects | › › Biography & Autobiography / Political Biography & Autobiography / Women History / United States / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |