Stanton in Her Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of Her Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

Among nineteenth-century womens rights reformers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (18151902) stands out for the maternal and secular advocacy that shaped her activism and public reception. A wife and mother of seven, she was also a prolific writer, transatlantic womens rights leader, popular lecturer, congressional candidate, canny historian, and freethought champion. Her lifelong interest in womens sexual and reproductive rights and late efforts to reform institutional religion are as relevant to our time as they were to her own.

Stantons professional life lasted a half-century, ranging from antebellum womens rights organization and oratory, to a post Civil War career as a lyceum lecturer, to a late-century role as an incisive religious and cultural critic. Acutely aware of the medical, religious, legal, and educational barriers to womens independence, she advocated for married womens right to vote, obtain a divorce, gain custody of their children, and own property. As she grew more radical over the years, she also demanded judicial reform, the separation of church and state, free love, progressive coeducational opportunities, and womens right to limit their fertility.

In this richly contextualized collection of primary sources, Noelle A. Baker brings together accounts of Stantons life and ideas from both well-known and recently recovered figures. From the teacher chiding an assertive young woman to erstwhile allies worrying about her growing radicalism, their voices paint a vivid portrait of a woman of vaunting ambition, powerhouse intellect, and her share of human failings. See more