Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?

January 1, 2019
A remarkable tale of the woman who drove the fight for women's suffrage.Former Boston Globe journalist Cassidy (Jackie After O: One Remarkable Year When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Defied Expectations and Rediscovered Her Dreams, 2012, etc.), now chief content officer for InkHouse, chronicles the life of Alice Paul (1885-1977), a Quaker from New Jersey who became one of the leaders in the struggle for women's rights in the early 1900s--and beyond. She was the daughter of a wealthy banker and earned multiple graduate degrees. While she was studying social justice in Birmingham, England, she was profoundly moved by the "suffragettes" Christabel Pankhurst and her mother, Emmeline. Raised to expect equality for all, she stayed in London and joined the fight. She was arrested multiple times in six months, went on a hunger strike, and suffered permanent physical damage from force-feeding. Running parallel to Paul's story, Cassidy gives us the background of the suffragist's biggest stumbling block, Woodrow Wilson. Born in Georgia at the end of the Civil War, his father, a minister, authored a booklet outlining his misguided argument for how the Bible condones slavery. Wilson's outlook was firmly fixed along those lines, and he even said, "universal suffrage is at the foundation of every evil in this country." He cast himself as a progressive, but that didn't include women or blacks. Paul joined the fight for equality in America, a struggle that was not as confrontational as England's but just as dedicated. While those in charge fought for states' resolutions, she felt an amendment to the Constitution was absolutely necessary. To say Paul was the driving force is not an exaggeration. She was tireless, always sure of her tactics and willing to endure many setbacks, arrests, and Wilson's continued obstinacy. Dedicated women like Inez Milholland, Alva Belmont, and Lucy Burns stood right beside her.This book should be required reading until Alice Paul becomes a household name. She not only fought for voting rights and the 19th Amendment; she kept fighting for another 50 years.

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February 1, 2019

Cassidy (Jackie After O) briefly traces the early careers of women's right activist Alice Paul and former U.S. president Woodrow Wilson before centering her narrative on Paul's aggressive 1913-20 suffragist strategy that, she implies, defined the evolution of Wilson's views. Paul, a humble, reform-driven Quaker, singularly pushed the constitutional amendment, assailing Wilson with controversial tactics she'd learned from the Pankhursts in England. This eventually caused a schism with the larger, stagnant National American Woman Suffrage Association, which advocated state-level enfranchisement. Paul founded the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916 and tirelessly and selflessly directed her followers to picket, lobby, and submit to brutal imprisonment to gain attention. The NWP criticized Wilson's inconsistent promotion of global democracy while refusing to support women's suffrage at home. Cassidy deemphasizes NAWSA's efforts, connecting Wilson's ultimate conversion to relentless, humiliating NWP attacks, arguing that Paul's single-minded passion presents a model for today's grassroots activism. VERDICT General readers will appreciate this treatment of the efforts of Paul, a heroine of the women's rights movement.--Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 6, 2019
Journalist Cassidy’s vivacious biography of militant activist Alice Paul, one of the undersung heroes of the American women’s suffrage movement and a key player in the adoption of the 19th Amendment, looks at her in the context of and in contrast to President Woodrow Wilson, whom Paul and her peers considered their primary antagonist. Cassidy highlights, with clear admiration, Paul’s energy, vision, and persistence, crediting her with pushing for methods of engagement that are still key to protestors today—marches, picketing at the White House, lobbying, silent protest, noncooperation with arresting officers, and hunger strikes. Her radical push for a constitutional amendment put her in conflict with others in the movement like Carrie Chapman Catt, who preferred a slow, state-by-state approach grounded in the willingness of men to accept the idea of women voting. The depiction of Wilson is conflicted, sympathizing with his stress and fatigue, but ultimately painting him as a failure and an unworthy opponent. Cassidy’s descriptions of the protests and marches led by Paul and her supporters are delightful, full of boisterous color and drama, and featuring the full texts of the wordy (and cheeky) banners used. This engaging history brings the suffrage struggle to life. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment.

December 1, 2018
This engaging account of the conflict surrounding the enactment of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, is an extensively researched, easy-to-follow narrative. Cassidy makes the struggle personal by providing telling insights into the lives of two main adversaries: Alice Paul, relentless and charismatic champion of women's suffrage, and President Woodrow Wilson, an initial opponent who eventually came around and voiced his support, albeit tepidly. Their social and political maneuvering unfolds amidst other dramas of varying national scope: WWI, the precarious League of Nations, racial unrest, activist spectacles and parades, jail sentences, hunger strikes, and the death of Wilson's first wife, Ellen, and his hasty marriage to his second wife, Edith, who largely assumed the duties of the presidency after his stroke. Details abound, whether appearing in biographical anecdotes, records of sordid prison conditions, or evolving slogans on protest placards. Readers will come away with increased appreciation for these heroic efforts devoted to women's suffrage plus new-found empathy for the combatants on both sides.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)