Frances Willard: A Biography

by Ruth Bordin

Overview

Frances Willard (1839-98), national president of the WCTU, headed the first mass organization of American women, and through the work of this group, women were able to move into public life by 1900. Willard inspired this process by her skillful leadership, her broad social vision, and her traditional womanly virtues. Although a political maverick, she won the support of the white middle class because she did not appear to challenge society's accepted ideals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807849477
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	12/15/2000
Edition description:	1
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ruth Bordin is the author of Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

With grace and energy [Bordin] portrays a woman who was in command of her life choices. . . . A portrait of skillful political leadership by a most 'womanly' woman, who used assumptions about female weakness to empower the temperance movement.—New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

With grace and energy ÝBordin¨ portrays a woman who was in command of her life choices.

"New York Times Book Review"

With grace and energy [Bordin] portrays a woman who was in command of her life choices.

"New York Times Book Review"

A portrait of skillful political leadership by a most 'womanly' woman, who used assumptions about female weakness to empower the temperance movement. ("New York Times Book Review)

From the Publisher

Willard (1839-98) became president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained active in that role throughout the 1890s. She was widely hailed as America's ``heroine,'' having devoted most of her life to building the women's organization that eventually secured the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. Bordin gives us a well-written, richly documented study. Using previously unavailable diaries, she argues that the WCTU was the first mass organization of American women and that Willard's emphasis on womanliness and domesticity were not conservative, but rather paired with radical social ideas. Willard is characterized as having a philosophy that is a meld of womanliness, Christian socialism, equal rights, and concern for nurturance. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. Sheila R. Herstein, City Coll. of CUNY Lib.

Library Journal