The Agitators by Dorothy Wickenden

Reprinted from the Citizen:

As someone who lived in Auburn most of my life, I was aware of how historic the city is but author Dorothy Wickenden brings the Civil War years in Auburn front and center in her new book, The Agitators that I learned so much more.

“The Agitators- Three Friends Who Fought For Abolition and Women’s Rights” highlights the lives of Frances Seward, Harriet Tubman, and Martha Wright, and how they often defied society’s conventions about women to work for the causes they believed in.

Frances Seward, wife to William Henry Seward, a United States Senator, New York State Governor, and Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln, wanted to become more involved in the cause of abolition of slavery.

Seward’s home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, hiding slaves who had escaped from their bondage in the southern states. She also helped found schools for Black children, and sold land to free Blacks.

Martha Wright and Frances became friends because their husbands were both lawyers, and the wives were both considered “outliers”. They grew up as Quakers, had young children, “a passion for reading and an antipathy to pretentiousness, and a burgeoning interest in social reform”.

They met Harriet Tubman after she escaped from slavery and was taking other people on their way to freedom in Canada. Harriet had little money, and Frances sold her land at a reduced cost to build a house, where Harriet eventually brought her parents to live, a place that is now a National Park Historical site on South Street. 

Martha helped organize the first women’s rights meeting in 1848 in Seneca Falls. Wright became active in the suffragette movement along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. “She rarely encountered an institution she didn’t question, and although convention dictated most of the circumstances of her life, she liked breaking rules.”

While Frances had a fairly large household staff, Martha, mother to six children, did not. Martha did the housework, cooked meals, cared for the children, sewed their clothes, made soap, and canned fruit.

Because Frances’ husband was a prominent political figure, she couldn’t break as many rules as Martha could. Frances felt very strongly that slavery should be abolished everywhere and quickly, but her husband had to be more politic. If he wanted to make changes, he had to compromise. It put a great strain on the marriage.

Frances and Martha each had sons who fought on the front lines of the Civil War. While they were proud of their sons for fighting the evil of slavery, as mothers they worried about their safety and health as many people who died during the war perished due to illnesses like tuberculosis and dysentery.

For Civil War buffs, there is plenty to keep their interest as battles and strategies are related in riveting detail. Wickenden studied under prominent Abraham Lincoln biographer David Herbert Donald, and readers interested in the 16th President will find much to satisfy them here.

Many of us know Harriet Tubman served as spy and nurse for the Union Army, and Wickenden shines a new, more detailed light on her service here. It is shameful that Harriet Tubman, who served her country so bravely, had to fight so hard to get the pay that was due to her.

We learn about the struggles within the Women’s Right movement. During the Civil War, many of the suffragettes turned their attentions to the abolition of slavery, while some of the women felt that if they stopped fighting for women’s suffrage, the movement would lose valuable momentum. It caused a rift between the two closely aligned causes, as they had to decide if they could fight for the right to vote for women and Black men at the same time, or if preference should be given to suffrage for Black men first.

The Agitators is a must-read book for people who enjoy learning about Civil War-era history, the history of the women’s movement, and especially the history of the city of Auburn through these three remarkable women. A tour of the Seward House, Harriet Tubman’s home, Fort Hill Cemetery, the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, and other local historic sites will be on your list of things to do. Dorothy Wickenden brings our small historic city to vivid life here in her fascinating book.

The Agitators by Dorothy Wickenden- A+

Published by Scribner

Hardcover, $30, 384 pages

Eva And Eve by Julie Metz

Eva and Eve by Julie Metz

Published by Atria ISBN 9781982127985

Hardcover, $28, 309 pages

Mother  and daughter stories will always be popular, both fiction and nonfiction. Julie Metz's new nonfiction, Eva and Eve- A Search For My Mother's Lost Childhood and What A War Left Behind takes Julie Metz from her mother's childhood home in Vienna to Trieste in Italy to Manhattan where her mother ended up when she escaped to America during WWII.

Julie's mother Eve and her family lived in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. There was a vibrant Jewish community of 200,000 people there in the 1930s. (Post-war, it was 9000.) When Hilter came to power in Germany, his Nazi party wanted to reunify the Germans living in Austria, and so the anschlauss (annexation) of Austria began. 

The property of Jewish people were stolen by the Nazis- homes, businesses, property- and Eva's older brothers were sent to London to protect them from a Nazi neighbor who had a grudge against them. Eva and her parents stayed in Vienna, and soon they were trapped in their home, ten year-old Eva unable to even go to school.

Eva's father Julius, with the help of some of the people who worked in the paper factory he owned, managed to raise enough money and get passports to get Julius, his wife Anna, and Eva to Italy and then on a boat to America where they settled in Brooklyn.

After her mother died, Metz found a notebook in her mother's dresser drawer, filled with notes to  Eva from her friends before the family left for America. Metz had a difficult relationship with her mother, who worked as an art director at Simon & Schuster publishers for many years, working her way up to an important position in the company.

Metz decided to find out more about her Eve's life as a child, when she was known as Eva, to better understand her mother. Julie traveled to Vienna and found the home where Eva lived with her parents and the factory her father owned. With the help of some kind people, she was able to uncover through photos and artifacts what life was like for her mother and grandparents. 

She found photos and archival information about life for Jewish people during the anschlauss. She learned the details of how systematically the Nazis took everything away bit by bit from the Austrian Jewish population, deported them, and began to send them to concentration camps.

Metz also visited Trieste, Italy, where her mother's family traveled and stayed for nine days, awaiting the ship that would take them to America.  She followed in their footsteps to better understand what happened to them and others.

Using both information she could verify and the feelings that she imagined her mother and family had as they watched their lives being taken away from them, Metz puts the reader into the minds of Eva and her family. We feel what they feel.

Eva and Eve is also part travelogue. Metz takes the reader to Vienna and Trieste, two cities I didn't know much about. We get a real taste for the food and culture of both cities.

If you only know about what happened in Austria during WWII from watching The Sound of Music or the one paragraph in your high school history book, reading Eva and Eve will give you a better perspective. On a microlevel, it examines how that trauma shaped the life of Eve, and how that affected her relationship with her daughter. I recommend it. 

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Julie Metz's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tasting Italy- A Culinary Journey

Tasting Italy- A Culinary Journey by National Geographic & America's Test Kitchen
 Published by National Geographic ISBN 9781426219740
Hardcover, $40, 383 pages

National Geographic and America's Test Kitchen have teamed up for a beautiful coffee table book, Tasting Italy- A Culinary Journey. Combining what they both do best, they take the reader on a journey through Italy, using the food of Italy as the basis.

America's Test Kitchen's Chief Culinary Officer Jack Bishop explains in his introduction how the differing climates of Northern and Southern Italy influenced the way that people in these regions ate. Traditionally pasta is a staple in the south, whereas corn polenta is the staple in the north. Olive oil is used more in the south, butter and cream more in the north.

The book is divided into three main regions- Northern, Central and Southern. The North is bordered by Switzerland, France and Austria and so their food is heavily influenced by those countries. It is surrounded by mountains, and therefore has a cooler climate. Fontina cheese and Nutella are among the most famous products made here.

The book is filled with gorgeous photographs of the region, as well as 100 recipes that the reader can try at home. Savoy Cabbage Soup with Ham, Rye Bread and Fontina and Spaghettini with Shrimp are two recipes from Northern Italy calling to me.

Central Italy, home to Florence, Rome and the Tuscany wine region, is probably what most people think of when they think of Italy. We took a trip to Florence this past summer, so I was most familiar with this section of the book, and I enjoyed reliving some of the best meals we have we have ever had by reading this.

Proscuitto wrapped in melon, figs, bistecca (steak), porchetta (pork) and the luscious Chianti wines can be found here in glorious abundance. The Hunter's Chicken recipe will find a place on my table soon.

Southern Italy has the hottest temperatures in all of Italy. The pace of life is a little slower here and  you'll find tomatoes, eggplants and lots of fish (anchovies, sardines, cuttlefish and octopuses) and not as much meat. The recipe for Eggplant Parmesan looks incredible.

Tasting Italy- A Culinary Journey is a wonderful book to give as a gift to anyone who has traveled to Italy, and with the holidays coming up it's the perfect time. National Geographic covers the fascinating history of the different regions, and America's Test Kitchen perfectly pairs their best authentic Italian recipes with the history. Even armchair travelers will be entranced by this beautiful book.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Tasting Italy's tour.  The rest of the stops can be found here:

Tour Stops

Wednesday, October 31st: Bryanna Plog

Thursday, November 1st: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Sunday, November 4th: Instagram: @lavieestbooks

Monday, November 5th: Always and Forever (Journeys through widowhood and beyond)

Tuesday, November 6th: Kahakai Kitchen

Tuesday, November 6th: Wining Wife

Wednesday, November 7th: Getting On Travel

Thursday, November 8th: Staircase Wit

Monday, November 12th: bookchickdi

Tuesday, November 13th: Thoughts From a Highly Caffeinated Mind

Tuesday, November 13th: Traveling Between

Wednesday, November 14th: Man of La Book

Thursday, November 15th: A Chick Who Reads

Friday, November 16th: Broken Teepee

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott
Published by Harper ISBN 978-0-06-209289-2
Hardcover, $27.99, 544 pages

Karen Abbott shows us a unique perspective of the American Civil War through the fascinating stories of four women. Two of them supported the cause of the Confederacy and two of them worked to keep the Union together.

Emma Edmonds ran away from her family, cut off her hair, and enlisted as a Union soldier. She became Frank and ended up working first as a medic, carrying injured soldiers off the battlefield and assisting the doctors in their care. It was brutal and bloody.

Her next job was as a postmaster, but she eventually came to the attention of the Secret Service, run by Allen Pinkerton. He had Emma, whom he believed to be a man, pose as an Irish peddler and as a black slave and infiltrate the Confederate lines to get information. She was a woman posing as a man posing as a woman- crazy!

Pinkerton also became involved with Rose, a Washington DC widow who used her feminine charms to seduce prominent Union politicians to get information to send to the Confederacy. Pinkerton worked hard to get evidence against her and eventually arrested her for espionage.

I was shocked that not only did Rose use her eight-year-old daughter to pass information to her spies, but when Rose was arrested, her daughter was held in jail with her. The conditions were horrible, and to subject a young child to that was unfair.

Elizabeth Van Lewis was from a prominent Richmond, Virginia family. She supported the Union, not a popular thing to do in Richmond. She used her superior intellect to organize a spy network through her work assisting Union prisoners held in a Richmond compound. 

She was able to recruit many spies, hide prisoners and send them back North, and get information to Union generals about Confederate troop movements. Jennifer Chiaverini wrote a historical fiction about Van Lew last year, titled Spymistress, that told Van Lew's story more in depth.

Belle Boyd was a young, headstrong teen when she shot and killed a Union soldier who was in her family's home. She loved the spotlight, and after escaping punishment for her crime, she became further emboldened and began to spy for the Confederacy.

She thought nothing of riding behind enemy lines to get the information to pass onto General Stonewall Jackson, who she had romantic feelings for.

I found it interesting that Rose and Belle both traveled to Great Britain in their quest to get England to aide the Confederacy. It was also fascinating to note that Pope Pius IX was the only world leader to recognize the Confederacy.

These women were brave and clever, using every feminine wile and intellect they had to advance the cause they held dear to them. Whether sewing secret messages in Jefferson Davis' wife's dresses or creating fake documents to fool the opposition, these women were remarkable and Abbott tells their stories with breathtaking interest.

Like many soldiers, the end of the war was difficult for them. The excitement was over, and it was difficult to return to their old lives. It was sad to find out how their lives ended.

Abbott brings these exciting women to life on the page, and I found their stories thrilling. Although this is a big book, I read it quickly, waiting to see what these brave women would do next. This is a book any history buff, but especially women, will enjoy.

Rating 4 of 5

Thanks to TLC for putting me on Karen Abbott's tour. The rest of Karen's stops are here.

Karen’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, September 2nd: bookchickdi

Wednesday, September 3rd: Lit and Life

Thursday, September 4th: Bibliophilia, Please

Friday, September 5th: Based on a True Story

Monday, September 8th: Dwell in Possibility

Tuesday, September 9th: Bibliosue

Wednesday, September 10th: Back Porchervations

Thursday, September 11th: WildmooBooks

Friday, September 12th: Broken Teepee

Monday, September 15th: Reading Reality

Tuesday, September 16th: Ace and Hoser Blook

Wednesday, September 17th: Jen’s Book Thoughts

Monday, September 22nd: Consuming Culture

Tuesday, September 23rd: Books on the Table

Wednesday, September 24th: Lavish Bookshelf

Thursday, September 25th: Literary Lindsey

Tuesday, September 30th: Book Hooked Blog

Thursday, October 2nd: The Feminist Texican [Reads]

The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich

The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich
Published by PublicAffairs ISBN 978-1-61039-713-3
Hardcover $25.99

My sons like to tease me and call me a feminist (yeah, they don't get it), a badge I proudly wear, so I was surprised that I knew nothing about the revolt by the women working at Newsweek magazine, who in 1970 brought a complaint to the EEOC against the magazine charging discrimination against them in hiring and promotion practices.

Lynn Povich, a writer who worked at Newsweek and was part of the suit, brings the story to life in The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women at Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace. The women were employed at the magazine as researchers, but were never promoted to writer or editor, even though they had similar education and experience as the men hired as researchers and quickly promoted to writer and editor.

Nora Ephron, who worked at the magazine, described the "caste system"

"For every man there was an inferior woman, for every writer there was a checker", said Nora Ephron. "They were the artists and we were the drones. But what is interesting is how institutionally sexist it was without necessarily being personally sexist. To me, it wasn't oppressive. They were going to try to sleep with you- and if you wanted to, you could. But no one was going to fire you for not sleeping with them."

Mad Men's Madison Avenue offices weren't the only places where sex and booze ruled the workplace.

Povich is an excellent writer, and parts of this book, especially where the women were secretly meeting and trying to recruit other women to join the suit, read like a tense spy novel. Will they get caught?

They hired a young and pregnant Eleanor Holmes Norton to represent them. "The editors, who had supported the struggle for civil rights, were completely baffled by this pregnant black woman who questioned their commitment to equality."

The male editors, some of whom seemed like great guys, just didn't get it. What was worse in many of the women's eyes, was that Katherine Graham, who owned The Washington Post and Newsweek, didn't get it either. There is a powerful scene where Graham meets with the women and appears baffled by their action.

Along with the historical context of this story, I enjoyed reading about the inner workings of the magazine. We had a subscription for many years, and I always turned to read Anna Quindlen's back page column first. I had no idea that the struggle for equality there was so recent.

I recognized so many names in this book- Qunidlen, Ephron, Eleanor Clift, Jane Bryant Quinn and Maureen Orth among them. But it is the names that I didn't know, they are the important names, the ones who laid it all on the line so that the above mentioned women would be well known. Women like Povich, Pat Lynden and Lucy Howard paved the way for the other women with this lawsuit.

This book is essential reading for all young women starting out in the workplace. They must know who fought the battles for them so that they have the opportunities now available to them. The women of Newsweek are heroes, and I think that this book would be perfect for a high school or college journalism curriculum. I was also lucky enough to meet Ms. Povich at this year's Book Expo America, a true honor.

rating 4 of 5

Legacy of a False Promise

Margaret Fuchs Singer was thirteen years old when her college law professor father was asked to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee regarding Communists working in the federal government. She did not know that both her parents used to be members of the Communist party.

Legacy of a False Promise: A Daughter's Reckoning is her recounting of that period of her life. Sometimes books such as this tend to be not so well written, and a bit dry, but Fuchs writes a powerful, interesting story of her search for the truth about her parents.

Fuchs' parents worked in the federal government in the 1930s and 1940s while members of the Communist party. While they believed in their cause, they still kept their politics hidden from their employers, something that I found intriguing. Singer writes

My father did not see in his Party membership a conflict of loyalties or a threat to the United States, but, instead, a way to participate in the nation's economic and social recovery.(p. 117)

That seems to me like a rationalization. If you believe you are truly doing good, you wouldn't have to hide your beliefs.

The Fuchs attended meetings, recruited other Communist Party members as federal employees, and reported back to a man higher up in the Party. When they became discouraged by events in Russia, they left the party. While they thought they had left it behind, when the government held hearings before Congress in the 1950s, Herbert Fuchs was called as a witness.

The government wanted Fuchs to name other Communists who worked in the federal government, but he did not want to betray his former friends. His employer, American University, promised him that he could keep his job if he cooperated. He was told that his wife would be called to testify if he did not cooperate.

With the memory of the execution of accused Russian spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg fresh in his mind, Fuchs reluctantly appeared before the Committee and gave them the information they asked for, to protect his wife, his children and his job. He agonized over the decision, but felt he had no choice.

The dean of American University reneged on his promise and forced Fuchs out of his job. Many people felt that Fuchs was a traitor to his country, and others felt that he betrayed his friends by naming names. It was a no-win situation for Fuchs.

Singer vividly brings to life that time period in our history through her family's story. Her description of what it felt like as teenage girl, so confused by what was going on, her relationships with her family, and the fallout from her father's decision are heartfelt.

As an adult, Singer works to find out the truth about her parents, seeking out documents and people who can help her. She is conflicted about this, even fearful about what she may find, but can't come to terms with what happened to her family until the truth is known.

Legacy of a Promise will appeal to many different readers; fans of history and politics, as well as those who like personal stories about family and a search for identity.

Rating 4 of 5 stars
Thanks to Robyn at Carol Fass Publicity & public Relations for providing me with a copy of this book.