Century of Struggle – The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States

Women Rights
Name
Course
Date

Women Rights
Origin
The purpose of this book was to discuss the struggles that women in the US had to go through to get their deserved rights in that time in the world. The book is divided into several sections including the start of the movements and circumstances that led to the organization of women. It also discusses the Civil War, intellectual rights of women and their role in the era of revolution. At the time of the publication of the book, the world had emerged from a huge era of revolutions not only regarding women but all human rights in general. Therefore, the book brought a life to the current circumstances and provided a clear voice to the society.
The book manages to uncover the sociological movement in the American history. At that time, women in the world, in general, were having a hard time finding a place in the current world scenario. It was not only relevant to the American history or specific fields but was true for other domains as well. While a large number of women had struggled for voting rights and got their voice heard in the human jungle, the book perfectly represented the soul of the story. For instance, the suffrage of 1920 when there was a bitter disappointment in the national policies regarding women rights, the book discusses the struggles and provides a picture of the whole era.
The book discusses several intellectual struggles that women in the US went through other than the suffrage. 1950’a was in particular considered to be a century of scuffle for women.

Starting from the right to vote and many campaigns that led to giving them their basic rights, this book records the compelling story of the journey. In that context, other literature is also covered in the book to some extent and provides insights on how even the works provides context. It builds on the previous writing and also gives details on some key stories. Some of the examples include an untold story that Eleanor Flexner discussed in the 1950’s and the authors’ reflections on that discussion.
The book discusses the book named The Rise of American Civilization published in 1927. This book played the role of a pioneer in the literature of women rights in America. The author did not only discuss the basics of women rights revolution in America but also talked about their role in politics, and their career development. In a section of the book, it covers the book series named History of Woman Suffrage published in 1880. Something that makes this book under analysis stand out is its exposure to other literature in the field and how openly it scrutinizes the work of other authors. This level of exposure to the history of women rights and their struggle put a light on the evolution of women in the American history and how they sociological, democratic, political and intellectual role paved the way for further growth of the American society.
Life after Publication
The author of the book was a pioneer in women studies, and all of the work of the author made a mark in the field to a key extent. After its release, the book proved to be a stepping stone in the area of women studies and gave the US a platform to bring the women rights debates on the table. The book did not only provide an opportunity to study the 19th-century struggles of women but also moved on to the 20th century and provided insights into the sociological aspects of that era. After its publication, it received a wide acceptance in the domain, and one of the main reasons of this appreciation was the transparency of the book and how profound insights it provided the readers.
In this time, the writes have a similar perspective about the book as the authors of that time when the book was released but there were some limitations in its impact on the modern world. Modern writers consider the book a provider of the basic framework for the history of women rights, and is also considered to be paving the way for further improvement in the domain. American reforms are widely discussed in the book and over all this period, the general opinion about the book has remained pretty much the same. It might be because of the author who wrote the book. Eleanor Flexner has always been known to write groundbreaking material and discuss matters that are sometimes neglected by the general society.
Many historians have responded to the author’s work and specifically the book as well. For instance, Ellen Fitzpatrick has mentioned that the book covers the real struggle of women and provides an honest insight into the movements that women led in the American history. Without reading the book, the study of women rights struggle seems to be incomplete. Although there were some challenges that the piece of literature faced because of how granular and informative it is and how it challenged the American politics, the book still received a wide appreciation from the world of literature and history.
The book is chronologically organized and covers all the events as they occurred in the history of women rights in the US. It talks about the Colonial and Revolutionary period, the fact that it discusses minor to key events in the domain is something that historians widely appreciated. However, the book did not have as a revolutionary impact on recent work as books like The Second Sex and The Feminine Mystique. The text is more expected to fill the gap that provides any information that the world did not previously know. Nevertheless, the pieces in the book are still detailed enough to provide the students and scholar with enough opportunities to learn about what happened in the US back then and how everything changed when women came into the field to fight for their rights.
Some part of the book is still considered to be a general text and nothing different than other books on the same topic. While the book had an impact back then when it was released, as more and more text entered the domain by time, this book somewhat lost its value and became more general. That is because newer literature is more capable of providing new approaches and philosophies while this book became more like a book that does not provide sufficient information about any given topic.
Reflections
In my opinion, this is a very decent look, and it provided me with some profound insights into the history of women rights struggle in the US. If I discuss the strengths of the book, it discusses various incidents that are good information for any scholar studying the struggle of women in America. I liked the book because, from the very start, it hooks you into reading the rest of it because of how well-written it is. Personally, I like the author of the book and follow almost all of the work. That might be one of the reasons I admire this book as well. The way that the book covers some major and even minor incidents provide it an edge in the domain and make it a thorough reading of the main topic.
If I am to discuss the weakness of the book, I do agree with the fact that there are some parts of the book that might not be very specific, and only reflect on what has already been discussed in other books. I have read other books in women rights history as well and I believe some of them, e.g., The Second Sex is pretty groundbreaking and give the reader a whole new perspective on the scenario. With that in mind, the book becomes a piece for the general understanding of the situation. For historical scholarship today, the book is important to provide some vital information to the scholar and give him a broader concept of how it all went down. However, other pieces of literature can be more helpful in those situations. While the book is important enough to give historical details in chronological order, other work is required to be studied to ensure that some crucial detail and a revolutionary bit of the history is not missed out on.
Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY Beurden, Sarah. 2001. “The Mother of us All : Eleanor Flexner and the Writing of Century of Struggle (1959).” Lehigh Preserve (Lehigh University Press) 1: 1-73. Accessed February 21, 2018.
Cruea, Susan. 2005. “Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement.” General Studies Writing Faculty (Bowling Green State University Press) 1-20. Accessed February 20, 2018.
Flexner, Eleanor, and Ellen Frances. 1990. Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States. Harvard University Press. Accessed February 20, 2018.
Harvard University Press. 2012. Century of Struggle. Accessed 2018 February. 21.
Hoffberger, Courtney, and Anne Arundel. 2013. “Nineteenth Century Reform Movements: Women’s Rights.” UMBC (UMBC) 1 (2): 1-10. Accessed February 21, 2018.