Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment, by Eleanor Clift (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003)

In Founding Sisters, Eleanor Clift gives the reader a front-row seat at the major events in the 72-year struggle for women's suffrage in the U.S., from the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention of 1848 through the vote in the Tennessee legislature in 1920 which gave the Nineteenth Amendment its thirty-sixth state needed for ratification. Culling her information from letters, diaries, memoirs of the participants, and critical accounts of the period, Clift introduces the leaders of the movement, including Elizabeth Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Victoria Woodhull, Frances Willard, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns. Clift shows how the personal styles of these leaders, from cool strategist to firebrand, take hold of the suffrage movement, swinging it wildly from methodically working on a state-by-state strategy for winning the vote to a national strategy for fighting for the Nineteenth Amendment. The most powerful element of the suffrage story as told by Clift is the raw courage and resilience shown by these "founding sisters" as they bounce back from defeat after defeat and emerge with new energies, new and merged organizations, and sometimes-brilliant strategies for keeping the movement in the public eye and influencing both state and national politicians. This resilience allowed them to engineer "the greatest expansion of democracy on a single day that the world had ever seen." Indeed, twenty-six million women voted in the presidential election of 1920. From Clift's construction, it is clear how the suffrage movement, after growing out of the abolitionist movement, became the foundation of major social movements of the twentieth century--civil rights, the antiwar movements of the Vietnam era, and the equal rights struggles of the 1970's. Founding Sisters thus realizes Clift's objective "to construct a narrative that has the immediacy of contemporary events" while also connecting that narrative to more recent history. $19.95 hardcover (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey; orders to John Wiley Customer Care Center--Consumer Accounts, 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256.)
Reviewed by Kay Wallace Bullock

Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire, by Amy Villarejo (Duke University, 2003)

Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire examines the value viewers give to the lesbian image in literature and film. Author Amy Villarejo establishes the context for her discussion of lesbian iconography by exploring the works of Marx, Freud, Pietz, de Lauretis, and Grosz, theorists who address the cultural values of images. She then turns to her investigation of the depictions of lesbians in a variety of genres, from documentary films to lesbian pulp fiction. Throughout the book, the author pushes the reader to define the lesbian subculture and to discern the impression that this subculture makes in society at large. By way of explicating the relationship of lesbian subculture to the larger society, Villarejo turns her attention to Exile Shanghai, a documentary of European Jews who found refuge in Shanghai during World War II. Villarejo argues that the impression made by the Jewish population in China in the film is similar to that made by lesbian culture in American society, an impression made visible when one peers "behind the scenes" in everyday life. While Villarejo does not explicitly describe the lesbian "impression," she offers readers an opportunity to infer the value that society accords to the lesbian image. Perhaps one of the strongest cinematic portrayals of the "lesbian" is seen in Sylvia Scarlett, in which Katherine Hepburn dresses as a young boy, a character that has often been interpreted as lesbian. As Villarejo points out, it is society that bestows this value upon the image. In the end, the reader of Lesbian Rule is left with as many questions as answers, but they are questions that inspire readers to continue Villarejo's examination of popular imagery. $ 21.95 paper. (Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660; www.dukeupress.edu).
Reviewed by Stephanie Kristal

Learning to Be Old, by Margaret Cruikshank (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003)

Margaret Cruikshank's analysis of gender, culture, and aging in Learning to Be Old dissects a variety of issues that Americans rarely consider until they begin to approach old age themselves. Cruikshank explores cultural myths about aging women as well as the social roles of older women and finds that learning to be old is complicated by cultural and personal perceptions of what it means to grow old. By examining the current "alarmist demographic discourse," the author reveals American perceptions of the aging population as a threat to the non-old and as a drain on the economy. Because older women's primary social function has been reduced to a sickness role, Cruikshank suggests creating new understandings of old age that are not synonymous with decline. She also notes that ageism is rooted so deeply in American culture that even with increasing numbers of older citizens, it will be difficult to eliminate. After examining some of the particular stresses, needs, and experiences of older women of color, Cruikshank calls for the gerontology field to increase its attention to and improve its knowledge of older women of various ethnicities, races, and cultures. In the latter part of the book, the author focuses on older women's priorities and notes that for many women, decades of hard work, care giving and busyness may make it difficult to imagine a life that is not crammed with scheduled events. Learning to be old, the author says, may mean learning to critique long-held routines and to make room for creativity, reflection, and life review. In addition, late-life spirituality may create an escape from busyness and may lead some older women toward a more mindful and contemplative existence. Cruikshank's thoughtful analysis challenges our cultural myths about women and aging and invites us to transcend the social constructions and expectations of aging. $ 24.95 paper. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706; www.rowmanlittlefield.com).
Reviewed by Lee Schwentker