With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote

We had already watched Iron Jawed Angels, and been to the Sewall Belmont museum, so there was very little new information, but for a middle school student being introduced to the topic of the suffrage movement, the book was great.

I highly recommend this book to all women just to learn how women were treated in their fight to be enfranchised and allowed to vote under the 14th amendment. Very little is written about the suffrage movement when I was in school in the 1970's. Men treated women as second class citizens from beginning of time and over 60 years later we are still not treated equal today. Our government gives business's and companies tax breaks to ship jobs to China giving the majority of Chinese women jobs just to make the almighty business exces wealthier. Why don't they think about all the jobless women in the USA struggling to make a living.

Great book with primary sources to teach intermediate elementary students the history of women's suffrage. There are a few minor moments where subjective language is used to paint a picture of certain historical figures, but otherwise a fair and intriguing read for parents and students alike.

This book was a tremendously interesting read. We all remember the stories in high school history class about the Suffragettes marching with placards to secure the vote for women. What we didn't learn was how horribly they were treated and that it took 72 years to secure the vote. This book should be read by every high school girl so that she realizes what these women went through to make sure voting is a right for women as well as men.

A great overview of the Women's Suffrage Movement, with focus on the later years. The book is aimed at children, but, as an adult I found it to be very informative. I liked the focus on the banners used in parades and protests. The author gives clarity to a complicated subject. Thanks!

Bought this for my daughter-in-law at her request for Christmas. She is enjoying reading it between taking care of two babies. It encourages her.

This book is written for children, but I found it invaluable. Written in easy to digest, but poignant bits of information, it provides snap shots of the main players and a sequence of event leading up to the final goal. The pictures and quotes artfully featured throughout the book highlight attitudes and the era in which the last push took place. The Bibliography provides a great guide for further reading. There is also a section giving information about some of the main women supporters, helping clarify who each one is ( when reading the story I found on occasion I got the people mixed up and this section helped straighten out everything beautifully). This is a book I plan on adding to my children's book shelf and is worthy to be added to all children's libraries.For the full review and others visit whymsylikesbooks dot blogspot dot com

The publications of the National Geographic Society encompass some of the finest non-fiction titles for kids on the planet. Year after year this company churns out remarkable historical, scientific, and cultural tomes that are not only readable, but also lively, informative, and well-researched. "With Courage and With Cloth", one of the very few children's books to delve into women's suffrage in any depth, is no exception. It offers amazing information that everyone should know, and so few do. Unfortunately, it suffers from its format. While the text is brilliant and the pictures sublime, the layout of the book will undoubtedly turn off some readers, while those seeking information about the photographs will be up a tree. A fine fine book that could've used some fine fine tuning.Author Ann Bausum has this to say about American history. Learning about history in school, "I knew all about Washington and Lee, Marshall and Eisenhower. History seemed to be a progression of stories about men and wars and conquest". How much did any of us learn about women getting the vote in school? As I recall, it consisted of one or two sentences in a textbook amounting to something like, "And then in 1920, women were given the right to vote under the 19th Amendment". Goodnight, everybody! The real story behind that teeny little sentence, however, is immense. It's a story that spans more than seventy-two years and was won with literal blood, sweat, and tears. Through this book we meet great heroes like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth. We hear about how the suffragists repeatedly split into two different factions and how these factions worked separately to bring about an amendment to the constitution. We see the heroism of the women (dealing with particularly disgusting forced feedings, beatings at the hands of sailors, and rat infested cells) and witness their less than shining moments as well (in regards to their treatment of African-American women). By the time the amendment comes to a vote and has to be ratified by thirty-six states, the book has become an edge-of-your-seat thriller. You may know the ending already, but it's a heckuva ride getting there.Bausum writes in a style befitting of the heroes she's commending. She never shies away from the movement's prejudices and problems, but at the same time it's clear that these women were particularly exceptional. The book even goes so far as to include a section on the Equal Rights Amendment (something I can honestly say I have never before witnessed in a kids' text). On top of that you have profiles of all the major players, a chronology of events, a resource guide, sources and acknowledgements, a bibliography, an index, and a list of books about the suffragists that I spent the better part of last night copying down so that I could read them later. Obviously, I would have liked there to have been some more sections on the African-American women and their take on suffrage. There's an excellent passage quoting Sojourner Truth's, "And Ain't I A Woman" speech and some mild references to racism in the south and within the movement, but these are kind of glossed over.The layout of the book is the only real problem with it. The photographs that dot almost every page are accompanied by pale light brown captions that will be almost impossible to read if your child has less than stellar eyesight. Also, some of these pictures are stunning or shocking to the point that you'd love to learn more about them. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten the images you see here are given brief three to four line captions and then never mentioned in the text. It makes for slightly frustrating reading. The colors of the book (purple, brown, and white) are lovely, but don't quite make up for the difficult-to-read-text.But that's neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is that the book fills a very great need. No library in the country is complete without it. If you've children who considers themselves to be experts on American history, brother they don't know nuthin' until they've read "With Courage and With Cloth". A remarkable creation and a necessary read. Perhaps even moreso for adults.