For the Public Record

Through a judicious selection of documents from the papers of the League of Women Voters of the United States in the Library of Congress, Stuhler reveals the rich history of an organization designed to serve the public interest. In the aftermath of the 72-year long effort by American women to win the vote, the League was formed to prepare these new voters for their responsibilities as full participating citizens. The organization's first president, Maud Wood Park, and her associates established Citizenship Schools throughout the nation to educate women, and they were so successful that one newspaper complained, Why not for men, too?

Succeeding presidents built the League's reputation as an organization inventive in its dual roles as a voter educator and civic activist. While League members were expected to be nonpartisan, they were also encouraged to be active in their parties, a sometimes confusing posture. Nevertheless, the League—as an advocate in support of specified public policies—succeeded in maintaining an informed nonpartisanship that came to be respected by opinion and political leaders, and the public learned that it could depend upon the League for unbiased information in election contests. In making it possible for women to show their strength and do what they have done for some 80 years, the League has made incalculable contributions to the public good. Students, scholars, and the informed public interested in American political and women's history will find this documentary collection invaluable.

BARBARA STUHLER, prior to her retirement, was Professor and Executive Associate Dean, Continuing Education and Extension (now the College of Continuing Education) at the University of Minnesota./e From the 1950s through the 1970s, she served on the state and national boards of the League of Women Voters and served as the League's representative on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. In recent years she has devoted her energies to writing women's history and to increasing the representation of women in politics.