Free Thinker, Kimberly A. Hamlin
Free Thinker, Kimberly A. Hamlin
4 Rating(s)
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Free Thinker
Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener

Author: Kimberly A. Hamlin

Narrator: Emily Durante

Unabridged: 11 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/31/2020


Synopsis

When Ohio newspapers published the story of Alice Chenoweth's affair with a married man, she changed her name to Helen Hamilton Gardener, moved to New York, and devoted her life to championing women's rights and decrying the sexual double standard. She became one of the most sought-after speakers on the nineteenth-century lecture circuit, published seven books and countless essays, supported herself, hobnobbed with the most interesting thinkers of her era, visited twenty-two countries, and was celebrated for her audacious ideas and keen wit. Opposed to piety, temperance, and conventional thinking, Gardener eventually settled in Washington, DC, where her tireless work proved, according to her colleague Maud Wood Park, "the most potent factor" in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Free Thinker is the first biography of Helen Hamilton Gardener, who died as the highest-ranking woman in federal government and a national symbol of female citizenship. Hamlin takes active steps to unpack the racism that underpinned the women’s suffrage movement, giving listeners a detailed view of Gardener's politics and the contradictions inherent in them. Her life sheds new light on why it was not until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the Nineteenth Amendment became a reality for all women.

About Kimberly A. Hamlin

A recipient of the NEH Public Scholar Award, Kimberly A. Hamlin teaches history and American studies at Miami University of Ohio and contributes to the Made by History series in the Washington Post. The author of From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women's Rights in Gilded Age America, she lives in Cincinnati.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hillary on July 16, 2020

Here's what I appreciated most about this bio: Hamlin allows for gray area. Gardener did lead an extraordinary life, arguing always for women to break free of societal restraints, and was instrumental in securing the 19th Amendment. She did so by using race-baiting arguments and leveraging outrage a......more

Goodreads review by Shelley on February 03, 2020

I won this book from Goodreads.. I found this book to be very interesting and educational. It was really interesting reading about suffrage and the fight to win the right to vote for women. Helen Hamilton Gardner led a really different life than the social mores allowed during this time. I'd definite......more

Goodreads review by Miguel on March 31, 2020

Thorough biography of one of the key figures who shepherded the 19th Amendment to approval. The author is not afraid to show this as a ‘warts-and-all’ overview. It’s unfortunate we learn that women’s suffrage came at the direct expense of expanding the right to vote for African Americans and Gardene......more

Goodreads review by Kyndall on March 09, 2021

I absolutely loved this. I first heard the author on a podcast, then found out through an alumni email that she teaches at Miami University, so I had to add this to my list. From the first chapter, I was absolutely smitten with Helen. I’ve read so many book about women’s suffrage and the pioneers wh......more

Goodreads review by Misty on March 12, 2020

Hamlin's excellent biography brings to vivid life a woman I can't believe I haven't heard about before. Helen Hamilton Gardener is a fascinating figure. Born Mary Alice Chenoweth in Virginia in 1853, childhood witness to the Civil War, she trained at a Cincinnati normal school and became the younges......more