The Myth of Seneca Falls

July 1, 2014

This provocative work challenges the standard narrative of the history of the women's rights movement in the United States. Even more important, however, it aids readers in understanding how collective historical memory is created and shaped. Debunking the notion of beginnings or origins, Tetrault (history, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh) seeks to explain why and how the 1848 Seneca Falls "convention" assumed its central role in the usual historical narrative. Arguing that the women's rights movement could be thought to have had many "beginnings," she roots the centrality of the Seneca Falls "myth" in the political divisions that emerged among suffrage leaders in the decades following the Civil War, as well as in the broader constitutional debates about freedom, black rights, and federal power that marked Reconstruction and its aftermath. The Elizabeth Stanton-Susan B. Anthony faction of suffrage leadership highlighted Seneca Falls because they found it useful to their political agenda and strategy. Some readers may be surprised to learn that the suffrage movement of these years was overly white, narrow in focus and membership, and prone to the race-baiting so typical of these divisive decades. What is also important about this well-argued study is the insights it provides into the pathbreaking nature of the Stanton-Anthony team, both as politicians and as historians of women. The book is fascinating insofar as it unravels the memories of suffrage leaders and sheds light on their internecine battles. VERDICT Recommended for scholars in women's history, constitutional history, and late-19th-century American history.--Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

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