LTAI: Women's Suffrage is a program series designed to spark conversation about American history and culture through an examination of the women's suffrage movement.
This is the first of five online/in-person meetings hosted by Broward County Main Library.
Join a special book discussion on "The Women's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote" by Elaine Weiss. This conversation will be led by scholar Dr. Jane Caputi, a professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).
Book abstract:
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"--women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel's, and the Bible. Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman's Hour is an inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War, and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights.
Dr. Jane Caputi - Lead scholar
Scholar's bio:
Jane Caputi is Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Her doctorate is in American Culture Studies. At FAU, Dr. Caputi has won the University Distinguished Teacher Award (2001) and was twice named University Researcher of the Year for Scholarly Activities, Professor level (2005 and 2013). In 2016, the Popular Culture Association named her their “Eminent Scholar of the Year” and in 2020 the Association for the Study of Women in Mythology gave her their annual “Saga Award” for contributions to women’s history and culture. In 2013. Palm Beach County NOW (National Organization of Women gave her their annual Susan B. Anthony Feminist of the Year Award.
Dr. Caputi has written four books: The Age of Sex Crime (1987); Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth (1993); Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power and Popular Culture (2004); and Call Your “Mutha’” A Deliberately Dirty-Minded Manifesto for the Earth Mother in the Anthropocene (2020). This last book is in a series on Heretical Thought and was published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Caputi also has made two educational documentaries The Pornography of Everyday Life (2006), distributed by Berkeley Media and Feed the Green: Feminist Voices for the Earth (2016), distributed by Women Make Movies.
Limited hard copies of the books are available for Broward County Library patrons. Interested in a copy? Email Sebastian Perez sbperez@broward.org to make a request. Please note the books are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and can be distributed to Broward County Library patrons only. Thank you.
Upcoming conversation dates and titles:
LTAI: Women’s Suffrage is a humanities discussion project from the American Library Association (ALA) supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
AGE GROUP: | New Adults | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Speaker | Online/Virtual | Discussion/Lecture | Clubs & Groups | Books |
| Mon, Sep 01 | Closed |
| (Labor Day) | |
| Tue, Sep 02 | 10:00AM to 8:00PM |
| Wed, Sep 03 | 10:00AM to 8:00PM |
| Thu, Sep 04 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
| Fri, Sep 05 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
| Sat, Sep 06 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
| Sun, Sep 07 | Closed |
