Distant Sisters

'Distant Sisters is fresh and necessary, a razor-sharp collection of ‘messy stories’ that warn against simplistic readings of the past to the suit the imperatives or trends of the present.'
Dr Yves Rees, Sydney Review of Books

'Distant Sisters [is a] meticulous account of Australasian women’s international activism in support of women’s suffrage between 1880 and 1914'.
Professor Marilyn Lake, Australian Book Review

'Distant Sisters is a seamlessly and beautifully written, as well as rigorously researched, account of the intersecting ambitions, aspirations, endeavours, successes and failures of political women connected by virtue of their place in the Australasian region. It is a masterful recount of the ‘messy stories’ both underpinning and arising out of Australasian suffrage success.’
Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, Women’s History Review

'Meticulously researched … this careful study allows us to see both the excitement of women who wished to be the first to achieve the franchise and the disappointments that followed. Through his thorough engagement with a range of sources Keating has illustrated the importance of cross-border connections'.
Professor Barbara Brookes, History Australia

'James Keating’s Distant Sisters is … an important book … It is meticulously researched, elegantly written and skilfully organised, building on international as well as local research and eschewing simple celebratory conclusions about Australasian women’s global engagement. Thus, while acknowledging the positive achievements, it emphasises contingency, contradictions and limitations, especially in imagining an Australian identity and forging trans-Tasman cooperation.'
Emeritus Professor Judith Smart, Victorian Historical Journal

'In this welcome new addition to suffrage historiography, Keating … delivers a portrait of the Australasian suffrage campaign that is far from traditional. It moves the reader away from a focus on the mere mechanics of the campaign, or indeed a spotlight on its key figures, to view instead a picture that is more detailed and complex. It helps the reader understand why the history of this movement and its activists has not taken a centre-stage in the global narratives of the women’s franchise, while also highlighting the roles of some of the almost unknown or forgotten figures weaving through its history. By using a methodology that privileged spatial concepts we understand why regional issues mattered so greatly and also why ‘Indigenous voices were absent from the Australian campaigns’.'
Women’s History Review