A review of Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress, by Lorissa Rinehart
I have always been curious about Jeannette Rankin, who was elected to Congress before women had even won the right to vote nationwide. She was also the sole dissenting vote for declaring war on Japan in December 1941, which was even more courageous than her vote against entering the Great War in 1917, when there were others who also voted against. Besides these scant facts, I didn't know much about her. Lorissa Rinehart's astute biography provides a surprising perspective on 20th-century history while relating the story of a remarkable woman.
In my mind, Rankin has always been associated with isolationism. But Rinehart's biography gives much more texture and complexity to her story, showing me how very wrong I was. She was categorically not an isolationist; she believed fervently in international engagement to avoid war. Her antiwar stance had less to do with pacifism than Progressivism. She saw war as a capitalist project to profit the munitions and affiliated industries at the expense of taxpayers and workers. To put it simplistically, she wanted to strangle war by cutting off the supply of armaments--which American industry had been selling to both sides. Given the pointless carnage of the Great War, it is hard to refute her insight. Rankin also saw the folly of the Treaty of Versailles, which she said laid the foundation for war rather than peace. While she was not alone in this opinion, the unpopularity of her vote against entering the war practically eliminated the audience for her warning.
The book provides a good survey of Progressivism and the woman suffrage movement through the lens of Rankin's participation. Both movements ostracized her after her stand against entering the war, especially the suffragists. They were still working for the passage of universal woman suffrage, and to have the only woman in Congress make an extremely unpopular vote was, in their view, a betrayal of the cause. The intersectional political conflicts that played out in Rankin's life story were fascinating, and Rinehart does an excellent job of parsing them out and making them understandable. The title is a little misleading, particularly the subtitle, because the book covers Rankin's entire life and does not focus only on her first election to Congress--the most interesting and valuable parts of the story take place after 1916.
The book doesn't dwell on Rankin's personal life, though the basic facts are provided, including many events during her early life in Montana. Readers who like their history re-enacted scene by scene may find this book less engaging than they would like, but the narrative moves along at a brisk pace, the analysis is concise and clear, and the content fascinating. It is more journalistic than interpretive, reportage rather than creative nonfiction, but the prose is warmer, livelier, and more eloquent than typical reportage. It is a pleasure to read, a biography worthy of a remarkable life.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing access to an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.