Susan B. Anthony

What It's About

This is a biography of Susan B. Anthony, tracing her life from her Quaker upbringing in Massachusetts through her early involvement in the temperance and anti-slavery movements to her emergence as the chief organiser of the American campaign for women's right to vote. Lutz follows Anthony's decades of speaking, petitioning, and coalition-building, including her arrest and trial for illegally casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election, and the tireless work that made her the movement's most recognisable figure.

Key Concepts

The book explores the interconnected reform movements of 19th-century America — abolitionism, temperance, and women's rights — and the practical, organisational side of activism: petitioning, public speaking, and building coalitions. It also examines Anthony's long working partnership with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

About the Author

Alma Lutz (1890–1973) was an American writer and suffragist, born in North Dakota and educated at Vassar College. She was active for many years in the National Woman's Party and devoted much of her career to writing about women who shaped the fight for equal rights.