Rethinking American Women's Activism

*A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2015*

"Orleck here produces an extremely engaging history of the US women’s movement from its 19th-century roots to the present...Orleck’s emphasis on varieties of feminism—labor, civil rights, mother, radical, lesbian—makes this highly readable book especially useful for academics as well as a pleasure for general readers. Summing Up: Essential."

C. E. Neumann, Miami University, CHOICE Review

"A master historian has put her mind to a seemingly difficult task--capturing the many-splendored aspects of America's women's movements in one place--and makes it look easy. This smart, insightful and beautifully written book tells a story every American should know."

Linda Gordon, author of The Moral Property of Women: The History of Birth Control Politics in America

"Annelise Orleck shatters conventional understandings of women's activism. She has exposed the long and difficult struggle for social justice, highlighting the troughs as well as the peaks, reminding us just how necessary but fragile coalitional politics can be."

Eileen Boris, co-author of Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State

"In this vivid tapestry, Orleck explores women’s multifaceted movements for gender, racial, class and sexual justice across the long twentieth century. Analyzing intertwined struggles for civil rights, labor reform, lesbian rights, women’s liberation, Riot Grrrls and more, she dramatically recasts our understandings of social change and of feminism/s."

Nancy A. Hewitt, editor of No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism

"Rethinking American Women's Activism is an engaging read, animated by dramatic anecdotes, unexpected moments of change and colorful characters. It delivers in demonstrating that women have consistently fought for social justice through explicitly feminist and other channels."

Katherine Turk, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill