Winning the Earthquake: How Jeanette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress

Historian Rinehart (First to the Front) offers an illuminating biography of the first woman elected to Congress. Best remembered for her votes against entering both world wars, Montana politician Jeanette Rankin (1880–1973) was also an advocate for progressive causes from suffrage and worker’s rights to ranked choice voting and abolishing the electoral college. Funded by family wealth and first elected in 1916, Rankin was dogged by a sexist press, especially Montana’s, which was controlled by the same copper monopolies she castigated for union busting. Rinehart notes that, unusually for a progressive, Rankin built a rural coalition; she also delves into how Rankin’s politically expedient choice to ally on suffrage with racists who wanted white women’s votes to counter Black men’s ended up haunting her in both life and legacy. With novelistic flourish, Rinehart spotlights the pressure that Rankin’s passion put on herself and others, though the narrative’s ample focus on family dynamics (including a mentally ill mother) begs the question why a perpetually single Rankin’s romantic life goes unaddressed. Throughout, Rinehart insinuates that Rankin’s style of progressivism could have helped America forge a different path, if sexism had not led to her being overlooked as an influence (shockingly, no archive was interested in her papers; they were mostly lost). It’s a gripping window into progressive political history and one woman’s defiance of sexist gatekeepers. (Nov.)