Chesler Ellen - Woman of valor: Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement in America

Woman of Valor shows us a zesty, authentic heroine who kept on evolving personally and politically, as we all must. I found fascinating lessons for feminists today in Margaret Sangers struggle for reproductive autonomy. Chesler shows how Sanger transcended both the radical rhetoric and the conventional politics of her day to forge a new day for women.

Betty Friedan

A definitive and intimate biography of Americas landmark crusader for reproductive freedom.

David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of Bearing the Cross

A brilliant biography that restores Margaret Sanger to her preeminent place in the history of American feminism and social reform. Ellen Chesters analysis of the politics of contraception and the relationship between women and their doctors forces us to reexamine the meaning of reproductive rights in this century.

David J. Rothman, Professor of Social Medicine and Professor of History, Columbia University

A fascinating book and a compelling story on two counts. One, it is a history of the first struggle for womens control of their bodies, for power over their own lives, a history we are repeating today with, sadly, little difference: We can learn from the first struggle. Two, it is an honest biography of a woman who conformed to none of the accepted recipes for a female life, changed the world, and had a happy and fulfilling time of it. Woman of Valor will impress and rouse everyone, except, perhaps, the Reagan-Bush appointees to the Supreme Court.

Carolyn G. Heilbrun

A compelling portrait of a great woman and a great cause. A significant contribution to the history of American feminism and of womens fight for control of their own destiny.

Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker and Master of the Senate

Ellen Chesler has written an extraordinary biography of a remarkable woman. Sanger is surely one of the most influentialand controversialwomen of the century. Chesler illuminates Sangers rich personal and public life with a sophisticated understanding of psychology and history, yet the book reads like a good novel.

Sylvia A. Law, Professor of Law, New York University

Chesler succeeds admirably in bringing the extraordinary career and controversial personality of Margaret Sanger to life in this skillfully researched and objective biographyan outstanding biography of a feminist reformer whose achievements changed the lives of women forever.

Publishers Weekly

The contemporary social debate over womens reproductive rights provides a timely backdrop for this major new biographysucceeds admirablycarefully documenteda major contribution to womens history.

Library Journal

A splendid biographyA riveting warts-and-all portrait of a courageous and determined woman who, in a time of foment, wrought fundamental changes in the human social condition.

Kirkus

Cheslerbrilliantly reveals and revitalizes Margaret Sanger in the context of the contemptuous public battles for birth controlbrings a keen sense of political nuance to the conflicts that surround issues of reproductive rightsat once richly detailed and capaciously conceivedauthoritative, readable and rippling with the energy of life it conveys.

Daniel J. Kevles, The New York Times Book Review

[A] marvelous biography.

Anna Quindlen, The New York Times [Op-Ed]

[ Woman of Valor s] chief virtue is a sweeping and authoritative grasp not only of Sangers life but of the political detail and maneuvering behind it.

Ruth Brandon, The Washington Post Book World

The Sanger portrayed by Chesler is compelling, and persuasively counters the tendency of earlier biographers to either eulogize or condemnCheslers exhaustive scholarship has yielded not only a fuller picture of Sanger but new knowledge about the history of birth control.

Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Boston Sunday Globe

This book couldnt be timelier.

Bruce McCabe, The Boston Globe

An important new workHad I tried, I could not have found more convincing proof of the timeliness of Cheslers absorbing, comprehensive biographybrilliant.

Diane Cole, Chicago Tribune

Offers a balanced, provocative examination of a crusader whose mission remains a source of serious dissension in American societya respectful biography that never descends to hagiography.

Susan Jacoby

A jam-packed page-turner of a definitive biographyCheslers straightforward account of the details is refreshingthis book reminds us how much defense our fragile freedoms of speech and bodily self-determination require.

Judith Levine, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Cheslers work is thorough and seriousChesler is fair to history and to her brave, complex heroine in a biography that, while honest, is also a tribute.

Rhoda Koenig, New York

The great strength of this biography is Cheslers gift for understanding the daily life of politics, the maneuvers, the assignations with strange bedfellows Woman of Valor is a treasure. Cheslers serious attention to the evidence creates a rich resourcegives Sanger the stature she deserves.

Ann Snitow, Los Angeles Times

A massive, absorbing study of Sangers life and times.

Newsweek

A brilliantly paced storya marvel of structure and clear prose, a saga that has never been better, or more thoroughly, told.

Helen L. Kohen, The Miami Herald

Cheslers fine work, equal parts biography and social history, readability and scholarship, should certainly cement Sangers place in American history.

Melanie Lawrence, San Francisco Chronicle

A copious and thoughtfulindeed, definitivebiography.

The New Yorker

[A] fascinating biography.

Molly Ivins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

IlluminatingWhat makes Sangers lifeand Cheslers bookso fascinating is that behind her overpowering charm, her savvy politics and her unswerving drive breathed a profoundly free-thinking woman.

Carol Ness, San Francisco Examiner

Fastidiously researched and an indispensable source for understanding the divide between population control interests and feminists around the globePerhaps the greatest of this books virtues is the care with which it documents the contradictions of purpose and philosophy which have vexed the American birth control movement almost from the start.

Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Womens Review of Books

Woman of Valor is essential reading for anyone interested in the shaping of the debate on reproductive rights and womens health issues in the United Statesthe book takes its place in the distinguished company of current feminist writingsdeserves high praise.

Barbara Abrash, Family Planning Perspectives

Fortunately, Ellen Chesler has no intention of allowing Margaret Sanger to remain trivialized and forgotten. Her finely textured and comprehensive biography supplants the sometimes unflattering treatment Sanger has received from other historiansThe work of a skilled storyteller, this masterfully detailed and penetrating social and political analysis reframes many of Sangers most controversial decisionsa perceptive psychological portrait which celebrates Sangers strengths without papering over her considerable shortcomings.

Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Tikkun

For Matt

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Copyright 1992 by Ellen Chesler

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