Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897

This is history written by the woman who made it. Elizabeth Cady Stanton spent eight decades at the center of the fight for women's rights, and her memoir captures both the public battles and private struggles of America's first feminist movement. Here is the story of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the first demand for women's suffrage spoken before the New York State legislature, the drafting of the Woman's Declaration of Rights at the 1876 centennial. But it is also the story of Stanton's father and her husband Henry, her seven children, her fractious relationship with organized religion, and her fifty-year partnership with Susan B. Anthony. Stanton writes with an irrepressible wit and optimism that feels almost reckless given the odds she faced. She knew the work would outlast her. She was right. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand where the fight for equality began and who carried it forward.