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Natural Born Rebel
by Rachel Holmes
On the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the definitive biography of suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst-political rebel, human rights champion, and radical feminist ahead of her time.
Sylvia Pankhurst fought militantly for a woman's right to vote, inspiring movements around the globe. But the vote was just the beginning. A talented artist, a free-spirit, a visionary, Sylvia was seen as "wild," even by the standards of her activist mother and sister. She became a radical feminist, committing herself to the fight for reproductive rights, equal pay, access to welfare and education, and freedom of sexual expression. She converted her experiences of torture, imprisonment, and violence into a lifelong quest to champion human rights.
Encompassing both World Wars and lasting through the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Pankhurst's political life was international in scope; it included Irish independence, pacifism, the rights of refugees, and the fight against racism in Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and colonial Africa. Her United States lecture tours made headlines and connected her with both American feminists and the NAACP. She spent her life in dialogue, dispute, and resolution with Winston Churchill, Vladimir Lenin, Jomo Kenyatta, Haile Selassie, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and W.E.B. DuBois. And she wrote about it all, prolifically.
In this enthralling biography, acclaimed author Rachel Holmes interweaves Pankhurst's rebellious political and private lives to show how her astonishing achievements continue to resonate today.
"[M]agnificent...Richly textured with historical details, crackling with the vibrant personalities of major and minor figures, and interspersed with clear-eyed, incisive analyses of Pankhurst's character and actions, this is a flat-out fabulous biography. History buffs will be mesmerized." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Holmes paints a vivid portrait of a crusading pioneer for women's rights, placing Pankhurst at the epicenters of battles for human dignity throughout the modern era and around the globe...Holmes' comprehensive biography can serve as inspiration for new generations of activists." – Booklist
"A spectacular work by one of the most accomplished biographers writing today. Rachel Holmes's Sylvia peels away the mystique and misinformation surrounding the life of perhaps the most interesting and complex of the mighty Pankhurst women." - Anita Anand, author of Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
"No one writes history quite like Rachel Holmes with her astounding gift for animating the past and revealing its uncanny contemporary relevance...Sylvia Pankhurst tells an epic tale of the last century that speaks so presciently to current dark times. The intimate, national and global adventures of this great and brave woman are recounted with color and precision...All of human life is here in a perfect read for the hard season to come." - Shami Chakrabarti, author of On Liberty
This information about Sylvia Pankhurst was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Rachel Holmes is the author of Eleanor Marx: A Life, The Secret Life of Dr. James Barry and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman. She is co-editor of Fifty Shades of Feminism and I Call Myself A Feminist. She lives in London.
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