Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923. 21x14.5cm: xii, 504pp. First Edition, First Printing. This copy SIGNED on front free endpaper by Chapman Catt with the sentiment "Women now vote in 26 / countries on equal terms / with men / Feb. 8, 1924." Publisher’s original presentation slip laid in. Two photocopies from May 2000 of letters signed by Chapman Catt also laid in, presumably used by a previous owner to authenticate the author’s signature. Publisher’s blue cloth-covered boards with title stamped to front and spine. Board edges rubbed and bumped with exposure at corners and some soiling and bubbling to cloth. Spine darkened. Book professionally cleaned and repaired, including recasing, repair of spine ends, and reinforcing of hinges. Light foxing to endpapers and preliminaries, with a small chip at lower corner of front free endpaper. Internally clean. Very Good.
Carrie Chapman Catt was a leading American suffragist who, working closely with her friend and mentor Susan B. Anthony, played a central role in the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment, which secured U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Under Anthony’s leadership of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Catt headed the newly formed business committee, organizing a nationwide network of lecturers to recruit and train suffragists. Chapman Catt later served as president of the NAWSA from 1900 until 1904, then returned to the role in 1915 and led the organization through the amendment’s ratification. After ratification, the NAWSA became the League of Women Voters, advancing Catt’s vision of an informed and politically engaged electorate.
Written shortly after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, this book goes beyond celebrating suffragists or recounting the movement’s victories. Instead, it probes what the fight for woman suffrage revealed about American politics itself. Chapman Catt and Shuler frame the book’s core contribution as exposing how U.S. political structures, interests, and practices shaped and repeatedly obstructed the fight for women’s suffrage, helping explain why the United States lagged behind other nations in enfranchising women. Along the way, they make several provocative claims, none more striking than their critique of “the buying and the selling of American politics,” a statement that resonates uncomfortably well today.
Price: $1,250.00
Item #10621